Meanwhile
by DarkEclipse702
Summary: A story of the Chuunin Exam between the time of Series 1 and Shippuden, where some of Naruto's peers become Chuunin. NOT ALL will become Chuunin in this exam, but some will.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Be glad I don't; If I did, I probably would have botched it up very, very badly a long time ago.**

**Chapter 1**

**The New Team 10: A Second Chance**

Sakura walked slowly back to her house, her face downcast. The road at her feet was all she could see Her heart set a beat that her feet could walk to. _Thump-thump. Step. Thump-thump. Step._

Normally she was never this depressed, but today was different. Today was the year anniversary of Naruto's departure. She would never admit it to his face, but she was actually missing him. It felt to her as if… well, she had already lost Sasuke. It almost felt as if, now, she had lost Naruto.

She knew others were taking it harder. Hinata, for instance. She was practically a quiet recluse now, dedicating herself to training and becoming stronger, and succeeding in all her missions. Others like Kiba seemed to have even quieted down a little bit. The only ones who didn't seem to be affected at all were Rock Lee, who found joy from training with Gai, Shino and Neji, who were always this quiet anyway, and Shikamaru, who was too lazy to change for anything.

In fact, the whole village seemed a little less quiet now. Konohamaru tried to fill the spot, and did a good job at frustrating her at times, but it was different from having Naruto. Naruto was her age, for one, and though she acted annoyed at his antics of affection towards her- well, she didn't necessarily like them, but they had just become routine. Part of her life.

Tsunade had, if anything, become more irritable and harsh. Maybe it just seemed like that because she was Sakura's teacher. But others noticed too. Shikamaru constantly complained about being overworked by her, as if she were trying to work him to death precisely because that was what he would hate most. And… well, she was sure there would be others who could testify to that.

Speaking of Tsunade, the Fifth was now turning out of an alley and headed… straight for her.

"Ah, Sakura." she said.

"Yes, Tsunade?" Sakura asked.

"I'll get straight to the point. First of all, we are going to hold the Chuunin Exams again, and I think you should take part in them." she said.

Sakura was stunned. The Chuunin Exams? But, that did make sense: They couldn't put it off forever. Normally the Chuunin Exams happened twice every year, but after Orochimaru's invasion, they had skipped a couple. But now- well, they had to get back on their feet sometime, and they needed more Chuunin for missions and such.

On the other hand, she felt thrilled. Now was an opportunity to show her improvement, to prove that she wouldn't be left behind. A second chance. It gave her a rush of excitement that seemed to break the gloom that she had been possessed by just a few moments ago.

Sakura nodded.

"And the second?" she asked.

Tsunade sighed.

"As you know… for the Chuunin Exams, you need to have a team. Therefore, I have assigned you to Team 10 with Akamichi Chouji and Yamanaka Ino."

One thought shot through Sakura's head: _NOT INO-PIG!_

"So, why didn't you just summon us to your office and tell us there?" Sakura asked.

"I was going to, but I ran into you first!" Tsunade exclaimed, "In fact, now I have to bring you so I can say the exact same thing with all three of you present!"

"And so, because of your former teammate Nara Shikamaru's promotion, and Team 7's… circumstances leaving Haruno Sakura the lone member, I am adding Sakura to Team 10 for the course of the Chuunin Exam." Tsunade finished.

She looked up from her position with her chin on her hands to find Ino and Sakura glaring at each other. Chouji looked visibly worried, and had even stopped eating his potato chips for once to watch them.

Ever since Ino realized where Tsunade's mini-speech was going, she had glared at Sakura. Sakura had been glaring at her on and off for pretty much the whole time, since she knew already.

_ANYONE BUT HER! _They were both thinking at once.

Tsunade cleared her throat. Both of them warily turned back to her, and Chouji relaxed visibly and began munching once more.

"Any questions?" she asked.

"Umm, what do we have to participate?" said Ino, glancing at Sakura.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow.

"_Is her aversion for Sakura really that strong?_" Tsunade thought.

"What's wrong, is Ino scared of losing to me?" Sakura asked teasingly.

This seemed to fix whatever it was Ino was worring about.

"That's not what I meant!" Ino protested, giving Sakura a death glare as if to say _I will never lose to you! _and gained a calmer complexion. "I meant, don't we have to have Asuma's permission? With Shikamaru gone he may… well…" she didn't finish that thought. _We don't need to have Shikamaru to succeed!_

"I have already talked to Asuma. In fact, he nominated both of you at the Jounin meeting last week, given I could find a third member for you to replace Shikamaru." Tsunade said.

Nobody else said anything.

"All right… well, I think that's all… you're dismissed." she said.

The three turned and walked out the door.

As soon as the door shut, Ino and Sakura looked about to explode again, but Chouji surprised both of them by speaking up first, saying:

"Please wait until we're at least out of the building."

They didn't know what to say to that.

_9992… 9993… 9994… _Rock Lee thought.

_At least he's keeping the counting silent like I asked him to… _thought the so called genius, slowly practicing his Gentle Fist movements in exaggerated detail. _It kind of makes me wonder how far along he is, though._

_9995… 9996…9997..._

Tenten sat in a tree branch above them, sharpening one of her many projectiles before stashing it into her scroll, and pulling out another one seemingly out of nowhere. _It sure is a nice day, isn't it? _she thought as she looked down on her training teammates. Lee's capacity to do so many pull-ups at once constantly astounded her, and Neji was a genius so whatever his training was accomplishing it must be brilliant.

_9998… 9999…_

"10,000!" Lee exclaimed suddenly as he catapulted off the pull-up bar, somersaulting in midair before landing in his "nice-guy" pose. The sudden noise startled Neji out of his concentration, and almost made Tenten fall out of the tree.

"That fast?" Tenten blinked. He had started about ten minutes ago.

"I know, I should have done better." Lee responded, "But I lost track of my counting somewhere in between seven and eight thousand, so I had to start over at seven thousand."

Neji scoffed.

"LEE!" came an overly-exuberant voice. That would be Gai.

"Gai-sensei!" Lee exclaimed.

"That which we have hoped for has come true!" Gai exclaimed.

Lee blinked and thought for a moment, then burst into a wide smile while laughing and cheering with Gai.

"Anyone mind telling us what this is about?" Tenten said after a long time of nothing but the same.

This calmed them down, and Gai cleared his throat.

"Well, Tsunade has decided that we are going to hold the Chuunin Exams again." he said.

Tenten understood now why Lee was laughing. She, too, looked forward to this, and for good reason too. She had more tricks up her sleeve this time, and she was determined not to lose. Even if it was that fan-girl, Temari. She had specifically thought out a way to be her, but the selection was random and it wasn't likely to get her rematch…

Neji just smirked. He had it won this time, he was pretty sure of it. _No Naruto to beat me now_, he thought. He immediately felt ashamed, though. Naruto had been gone a year, and the only thing he could feel was happiness that he wouldn't be in the way? Well, either way, he was definitely not going to lose this year.

"Was I right to assume that you would all want to participate?" Kurenai asked her team. She was eyeing Hinata especially.

"Heck yes!" Kiba exclaimed. Akamaru barked joyously too, "No Naruto to get in my way this time!"

Unlike Neji, it seemed Kiba didn't seem to have any regrets about seizing the opportunity.

"About time." was all Shino said.

Kurenai kept looking at Hinata. She was looking down. _Is she really ready for it, after what happened last time…?_

Hinata looked up suddenly, her eyes filled with a confidence that was very unlike her.

"Of course." she said, "This is my chance to show everybody how much I've improved!"

"You sounded like Naruto just then." Kiba said.

Hinata blushed deeply and went silent again.

Kurenai sighed.

"Well, that being the case, we have two weeks to train. And trust me, I am going to make sure to train you hard. Very hard." Kurenai said, and as she said that trees erupted from the ground and enveloped them all.

"What? Already?" Kiba groaned as he struggled against the genjutsu.

Then, suddenly, the illusion faded. Hinata and Kiba stumbled, dizzy, while Shino explained.

"Genjutsu manipulates the chakra in your brain. So I just had my bugs eat the chakra she was manipulating; that's why you're a little dizzy."

Kurenai smiled.

"Come catch me if you can!" she called, leaping over rooftops towards the forest.

"Let's go! Akamaru!" Kiba exclaimed, following. Hinata and Shino followed in silence.

_Finally… this is my chance to show how much I've improved!_ Hinata thought.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, and I probably never, ever will.**

**It's come to my attention that my section dividers didn't show up last time. They were a lot of those little squiggly line thingies, but they didn't work. So I'm trying Astericks this time.**

**Chapter 2**

**Enter Team 6: Meet the Competition!**

He was watching the clouds during watch duty again. Kotetsu and Izumo said he did it way too much, and he almost agreed with them. It wasn't as if he could lay on his back in his secret place and watch the clouds in complete peace- no, he had to stand up, and glance at the road every now and then to make sure nobody was coming. It wasn't really that relaxing at all.

"Umm, Shikamaru, you may want to-" Kotetsu started, but didn't get to finish because a roaring gust of wind in a controlled cyclone suddenly caught Shikamaru and hurled him off the gate rampart. He fell to the street below, landing with a thud. Not all unlike when Naruto pushed him into the arena during the last Chuunin Exam… To think it had been a year since he had seen him last.

"It's all right, open the gate." he called back up to the two as he sat up. Maybe he should just lay there awhile and pretend he was dead. It certainly was troublesome to stand and walk over to the gate…

He was halfway on his feet when a female voice rang out.

"Come on, stand up, we don't have all day! Weren't you supposed to welcome us?"

"Troublesome woman…" Shikamaru groaned as he stood. Temari stood in front of him and Gaara and Kankuro were hurrying to catch up.

"Mr. Crybaby." she said with a smirk.

"Hey, I didn't blast you off a fifty foot gate did I?" Shikamaru retorted.

Kankuro and Gaara caught up to her, both panting.

"Hey, Kotetsu! Izumo! You two manage without me for a bit!" he called up to the gate.

"All right!" Izumo called down.

Shikamaru turned and started leading them towards the Hokage's building. Temari stepped up beside him, leaving Gaara and Kankuro behind them.

"You seem surprised." she said.

"You two weren't supposed to arrive for at least another day. Why shouldn't I be?" Shikamaru asked.

"Yeah, Temari suddenly decided that it would be a good time to break a world record." Gaara said.

"She's like a slave driver when she gets like that…" Kankuro grumbled.

Temari shot them a glare and pretended not to have heard their comments.

"That's not what I meant." She said.

Shikamaru shrugged and yawned.

A ninja with a giant shuriken on his back with the hilts of four katanas sticking out of each point suddenly leapt over their head.

"TAMARU! GET BACK HERE!" another boy shouted, following right on the first's heels, with apparently nothing to distinguish him from any other normal ninja.

Finally, a brown-haired girl followed behind them, sighing and shaking her head.

"Who're they? The new village idiots?" Temari asked.

"No… they're… well, they're Team 6… the cursed team…" he replied.

Tamaru leapt over the houses, frantically trying to escape Raigar. He didn't even know what he did this time. Sometimes he seemed to just randomly get mad at him for no reason at all; it was very frustrating.

"What'd I do this time?" he called over his shoulder.

But Raigar wasn't back there.

A hand suddenly floated up in front of Tamaru. He stopped abruptly, trying to reverse directions. When he turned around, another hand was there.

The two hands started forming hand signs as if they were still joined.

"Wind Burst!" came Raigar's voice.

Blasts of wind issued out of both hands, colliding on Tamaru, mercilessly whipping him with harsh winds.

Raigar leapt onto the roof, his two hands coming back to his arms and reconnecting seamlessly. He walked up to Tamaru…

And found a katana. It had a silver hilt and the symbol for "Wind" on it.

Tamaru must have been using his Katana Clone Jutsu the whole time while the real one got away…

"TAMARU!" Raigar yelled at the sky.

_Cursed… cursed… cursed… _the word echoed in Tamaru's head, a curse in itself.

_To our Sensei, who will never pass from our memories. _read the engraving on the flower vase in front of the gravestone. Tamaru had made it himself.

_Hayate Gekkou_

The gravestone was so simple, and yet it was so important to all of them. However else they may act the rest of the time, the three of them all had holes in the hearts that could never be healed.

He remembered the day of graduation… Hayate had met with them on the roof of some building, asked them a few things about themselves. At the time, Tamaru had been practically ignored- he did not belong to any clan so he didn't have any Kekkai Genkai or clan Jutsus to make him stand out. Both Raigar and Rasha had Kekkai Genkai, so he felt that he would soon be left behind , but he would try hard to keep up, he told himself.

At the time, Raigar had joked that since they were Team 6 and 6 was an evil number, they were cursed. They all laughed at it then.

Nobody was laughing about it now.

"I thought I'd find you here." Rasha said, walking up.

Tamaru said nothing.

"You know about the Chuunin Exam, right?" she asked.

He nodded.

"Tsunade's letting us enter even though we don't have a Jounin leader." Rasha said.

Tamaru bit his tongue.

"She is?" he was surprised.

Rasha nodded.

"Well, she better get used to it, because we'll never have a Jounin leader." he said simply.

"Don't say things like that." Rasha said.

"Who would want us? Signing on as head of the 'Cursed Team 6' is like signing your own death warrant." Tamaru scoffed.

"Genma offered." Rasha pointed out.

"He knew Tsunade wouldn't actually let him. Besides, he wouldn't be able to bear leaving Shizune's team I bet." Tamaru shot back.

"There you are, finally!" came Raigar's voice as he landed in front of Tamaru, setting down a Katana, "I thought you'd want it back after that stunt you pulled on me."

"You read my mind." Tamaru said sarcastically, reaching for the katana and sheathing it on his back beneath his giant shuriken with the other three.

"No, that would be Rasha." Raigar said.

Rasha looked stunned.

"I don't even have my Kekkai Genkai turned on! And I wouldn't use it on you guys anyway!" she protested.

"Riiight…" Raigar said skeptically.

"So… anyway… I guess we should start training then, if the Chuunin Exam is soon, eh?" Tamaru said.

"Believe it or not, that's what I was trying to tell you about!" Raigar protested.

"And how does that have to do with Wind Bursting me to death?" Tamaru shot back.

"It's practice. For my training." said Raigar smugly.

Tamaru reached out and smacked Raigar on the backside of the head.

"OW! What was that for?" Raigar asked.

"It's practice. For my training." said Tamaru mockingly.

"Oh boy…" Rasha grumbled as they shot off again, Raigar chasing Tamaru.

The Tamaru stopped abruptly as a shining ball of light shot down from above their heads, crashing through several branches in front of them, streaking downwards at high speeds. A crash was heard.

"What the heck? Was that a lightning bolt? It's not even cloudly!" Raigar exclaimed, pulling up behind Tamaru.

"There's a life form…" Rasha pointed out.

Tamaru leapt down from the tree and walked tentatively up to the area. There was a small crater with dust rising from it, and out of the smoke came…

A man.

The man was halfway masked, with his mask covering his left eye. His grayish hair stood straight up and to one side, and he held a book by his side.

"Hello, you are Team 6, I presume?" the man asked.

Tamaru looked at him suspiciously.

"Yes…" he replied slowly.

"Why the… well, whatever it was?" Raigar asked.

"Oh, the Rakiri? I thought it would get your attention." the man said.

Tamaru still looked at him suspiciously.

"Tamaru, it's all right. This man is Hatake Kakashi, and he's hear to help us train for the Chuunin Exam." Rasha said.

The other two looked at Rasha briefly, long enough to see her normally brown eyes turning a greenish blue. They had learned to trust whatever she said while using her Seigan, so they relaxed and faced Kakashi.

"And I see the mind reader exceeds all expectations I could have had." Kakashi nodded towards Rasha, "It is as she says."

"Don't you have your own team?" Tamaru asked.

Kakashi sighed.

"Not anymore, which is why I was assigned to you, because you don't have a Jounin leader." he said.

Rasha looked at Tamaru as if to say, _See? I told you._

"But you do know about our… well… our…" Tamaru didn't know how to put it.

Kakashi laughed, which was the last thing Tamaru expected him to do.

"Your _curse? _I've been through a lot worse than that, and I'm still here, aren't I?"

Tamaru looked warily at the others.

"Don't underestimate the curse." Tamaru said finally, "We know it to bring down a very powerful man. We laughed about it to, until…" Tamaru didn't finish the thought.

"Relax, all right?" Kakashi said, "I could have refused it if I wanted to. But like I said, I've been through worse so-called curses than this. It's as if from the day I was born the world plotted to kill me, but I'm still alive. So don't worry about it, eh? We got to start your training."

Tamaru looked at Rasha and Raigar. Raigar looked unsure still, but Rasha's eyes flashed with a message something like, _this is one Sensei I could get used to. _

Tamaru trusted Rasha, since she was the one who had already been inside Kakashi's brain and out as soon as she had laid eyes on him, but he disagreed with her on one point. To him, nobody could ever replace Hayate-sensei. _Nobody._


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I definitely do NOT own Naruto. Never before, not now, and not likely ever to in the future.**

**Hmm… the Astericks didn't show up either… I think I'll just split the sections with extra spaces, all right? I think that should show up.**

**Chapter 3**

**Foreign Teams Arrive: A Few Complications!**

"Is it really all that bad?" Genma piped up, "I mean, in every Chuunin Exam we've had, we've had foreign teams."

Tsunade pressed her fingers to her temples.

"I know, I know. It's just; we don't want a repeat from last year. Orochimaru has a wide net of contacts, and when it comes to deceptions and false promises there's nobody who's better at it. He could have hoodwinked any one of these countries to work against us."

Tsunade leaned in on her hands, looking seriously at the others.

"And, I've even received some reports that there may be another Jinchuuriki other than Gaara participating."

There were a few collective gasps around the room.

"What? Which one? What country?" Anko asked.

"We're not sure, but… by elimination, we believe it may be the Seven Tails. And it's from the Country of the Rock." Tsunade explained.

"The Rock? I never did trust them. They've been dying to get back on top for years. I figured they'd plan something…" Ibiki commented.

"Hey, why shouldn't they?" Tsunade said, "Let's face it, when it comes to Jinchuuriki, we have Naruto, the Sand has Gaara, the Cloud has that cat-lady person, the Rock may have this Seven Tails, and the Mist… well, I don't know about the Mist, but they had the Seven Swordsman to cause damage for all those years before they all defected, so they're still widely known, even if they're on the way downhill. Speaking of the Seven Swordsman… we may have one of the Seven Swordsman's children coming too." Tsunade finished with an exasperated sigh.

"Children? I didn't know the Seven had children." Asuma said, taking out his cigarette in surprise.

"Well, when they all defected we didn't really hear about them anymore and they were free to do as they pleased… apparently, one of them was quite the ladies' man. He probably didn't want his child to have to experience the same running from Tracker Ninja as he did, or maybe he just didn't want to be burdened by a kid. Either way, he left the kid with the mother, who in turn installed him back into the village by secret." she said.

"And the Mist just let him in? The child of a Missing-nin?" Kurenai asked, outraged.

"Not only that… I bet they think he's their biggest asset…" Tsunade groaned, "Now do you see why I'm worried about this?"

"And what about the Lightning Country?" Gai asked.

"I don't know… I haven't heard anything out-of-the-ordinary from our spies yet. But the Cloud-nin have always been unpredictable and usually pretty strong… I wouldn't put anything past them. And adding to that, most every one of the smaller village has at least one team entered…" Tsunade faltered.

"I think," ventured Kakashi, "That all we can do is keep a watchful eye out and be ready to step in at a moment's notice. We can't quit the exam due to a little paranoia. At least there's no Sound Genin this time."

"That's just the thing that bothers me." Tsunade said, "If there were, we would know who to watch. But Orochimaru knew that… and now we're blind. We don't know who to look for." Tsunade replied.

"We'll all help. Are you sure Orochimaru will try something? And what if it's not even Orochimaru, but Akatsuki?" Shizune asked.

"I don't. He might, he might not. But the possibility puts me on edge. It seems just like him… he never liked losing. As for Akatsuki, they didn't come at the last one when Gaara and Naruto were there… I don't think they'll try again. Then again, I wouldn't put anything past them either."

"So we're besieged on all sides, jumping at shadows from our paranoia, while the real enemy sneaks up on us and stabs us in the back. I don't see how it's helping." Shikamaru said at last.

Tsunade had invited Shikamaru, a mere Chuunin, to the Jounin meeting because of his brain, hoping that he would come up with a few helpful ideas. She didn't want more skeptical criticism.

"Forgive me for being blunt, but we have to have this paranoia! I don't want to offend anyone, but if the Third hadn't been so happy-go-lucky about things he might still be alive!" Tsunade exclaimed.

The room was silent. Maybe she had gone too far.

"You're all dismissed." she said. One by one they filed out, until it was only Shizune left. She looked at Tsunade, concerned, then left as well, leaving Tsunade alone with her thoughts.

And fears.

When the ground gave way beneath them, they weren't surprised.

They were the ultimate scouting team, after all. Hinata had seen them a mile in advance and Kiba and Shino could smell them, even underground.

They leapt backwards in the nick of time, glaring at the three assailants below them, the center of which seemed to be chewing on something.

"Where did all that concrete go?" Hinata thought.

The one in the center who was chewing on something swallowed and burped loudly, patting his stomach. The other two, both boys, glanced at him, then looked up at Team 8. They saw headbands for the Village Hidden in the Stone on their foreheads.

"What was that for?" Kiba asked, seemingly surprised and outraged, even though they had known about it.

"Just testing out the competition." The center one said, flashing a huge toothy grin, "I hope the ninja are more delicious than the concrete."

With that, the three of them vanished from the hole, leaving a confused Team 8 behind.

Neji caught the kunai in mid air in one single stroke.

He twirled it between his fingers a bit before showing it to the others. There was a note attached to the end of it.

"Dear adoring fans, I hope you will attend my next concert- that is, the Chuunin Exams. Your favorite rock star, Krazy Kazmo."

"What the heck?" Tenten asked.

"Rock star, eh?" Lee commented, "Never heard of him."

"THAT'S IT! LET GO! I CAN'T STAND SUCH EMBARRASMENT!" came a yell from a nearby alley. They rushed into the opening to see two identical looking women holding back a man by the arms. They all had Cloud Village symbols on their forehead protectors.

"How can they not know me? How, how, how!" the man was yelling.

"Kazmo, please-" one started.

"-don't do anything rash!" the other finished.

With that they let go of him. The man, who seemed to be Kazmo, looked at Team 9, puzzled.

"No pre-show viewings, please! I said no paparazzi!" he exclaimed.

"Uh, Kazmo…" the first began the sentence.

"Hmm… would you like to give them a demonstration performance?" the second ended.

This seemed to brighten Kazmo up.

"YES! ABSOLUTELY! Are you ready, twins? Lights!"

The first twin snapped, and the alley was suddenly all dark except for a spotlight out of nowhere that was on Kazmo.

"Camera… Action!" he yelled.

The second stepped into the spotlight, holding up an imaginary microphone, and said.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome… the one and only… Krazy Kazmo!" she said, seeming to be falsely enthusiastic about the whole thing.

"YEAH!" he shouted, "Be sure you, my loyal fans, come and watch my winning performance through the Chuunin Exams. It will be one to remember, you can be sure of that!"

With that, there was a blinding flash and when they could see again, the three had vanished.

"What the heck?" Tenten asked for the second time in a row.

Neji shook his head.

"Never put anything past Cloud-nin I suppose…" he muttered as they continued on their way.

Nothing could have startled Sakura more than when Chouji suddenly launched at her to punch her. She ducked down, narrowly dodging his punch.

"Chouji? What are you doing!" She screamed.

Ino was standing a little to the side, laughing. Sakura could barely see her clearly in the mist that had suddenly enveloped them.

"Heh, look at this! This is priceless! So pathetic!" she said, laughing.

Sakura felt rage wash over her as inner Sakura screamed in anger and she ran towards Ino with a Tsunade-strength punch. Ino moved out of the way narrowly as Sakura put a dent in the wall she had hit.

"How- how did she see through it?" Ino asked, much to Sakura's confusion.

"What?" she blinked dumbly.

"Partial Expansion Jutsu!" came Chouji's voice, and Sakura was startled to be thrown to the ground by two huge hands.

"And look at that _fatso_ over there. Even more pitiful." Ino was doubling over in laughter now.

Chouji heard apparently, from however far away he was, the taboo word.

"INOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" Chouji exclaimed.

"Oh great…" Sakura thought.

"Human Boulder!" he cried.

She dove to the side into a building as a huge mass rolled past her. Apparently Ino hadn't dodged it, but seemed to be holding it back with a sort of barrier… it was see-through and glistened like… like ice…

Chouji kept rolling, even though he slowed down a bit. Ino looked like she was struggling, and then finally as Chouji gave a final effort, Ino was thrown back onto the ground. Chouji returned to normal, a fire in his eyes.

The mist suddenly cleared, and Sakura blinked. She no longer saw Ino on the ground in front of Chouji, but some weird guy with a Rain-nin forehead protector. Further up the alley, Ino was fighting hand-to-hand with another Rain-nin girl.

"Take it back, Sakura! Take it back!" Ino said, landing a punch straight on the girl's cheek. The girl flew back into the wall and Ino stopped for a second and realized what she was really looking at.

"Wait, what?" she asked, confused. She saw Sakura peeking out of the building.

"You must have used a Replacement Jutsu!" Ino exclaimed, running at Sakura, "I'll make you take it back, even if I have to pummel you!"

"You called me fatso!' Chouji exclaimed, chasing after Ino.

"Wait, stop! It's not what you think!" Sakura protested, connecting the dots at once.

"Heh. You three really are pathetic." said a voice on the roof above them.

They looked up to see a third Rain-nin, this one with blades that he held from his hand, blades that curved outward and up until it was parallel with his arm a few inches away from it, ending a little below his shoulder.

"It was a Genjutsu all along." Sakura explained, to save Chouji or Ino further questions.

"At least one of you is somewhat intelligent." he said, laughing, then glared at his two fallen comrades.

"Ryuna! Kyban! Come on, get up here!" he yelled. The two stood to their feet and jumped to the roof to join him.

"Sorry." said the girl, apparently Ryuna.

"We let our guard down." said Kyban, the boy.

"What was all that for!" Chouji yelled up to them.

"Yeah, no fighting is allowed before the Exam starts!" Ino added.

"Heh. We were just testing you. If this is all the Leaf Village has to offer, I will be sorely disappointed." said the lead Rain-nin, laughing.

With that, they vanished.

"Damn it… we'll have to prove them wrong next time they show their faces, Sakura!" Ino exclaimed.

"That much, at least, I agree with you on." said Sakura.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: Me no own Naruto.**

**Dangit, the spaces didn't work either. Really, I don't know WHAT to do to mark sections… maybe I'll just do something like section marker or something.**

**Chapter 4**

**Training Hard: Another Bell Test!**

"Here's the deal." said Kakashi, coming up to them, "I don't know enough about each of you to teach you new skills, or to refine them, and so on. The best thing to do at this point would be to train by experience: you three fight me for these bells."

Kakashi held up three bells.

"It will also help me know your individual strengths and weaknesses, and gives me a scope of your skills while you're at it. So don't hold back at all. Come at me like you're going to kill me, and that way you will get the most out of this training. Understand?"

Team 6 nodded.

"All right then… go!" Kakashi exclaimed, and the four of them disappeared.

** section marker **

One of the bugs holding the target about the size of a pen point fell to the ground, dead.

"Please try to aim for the targets," Shino said, "I don't want any more of my bugs to die by accident."

Hinata was standing in the middle of a huge swarm of Shino's beetles, each of them holding a tiny target, as she was doing her Protection of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms. The chakra darts soared almost faster than the eye could see, causing targets to explode left and right. When a bug's target got destroyed, it moved back to Shino.

When the last target was finished and Hinata stood in the middle, panting, massaging her arms from all that work, Shino examined the ground.

"Three. You killed three of my bugs, and judging from the marks on the trees you missed even more." Shino said.

"I'm sorry, Shino." Hinata said, "Let's try again."

"No," said Shino, "Let's take a break."

They sat down on a bench nearby and Hinata drank some water from her canteen. Shino just sat there.

"Is Kurenai still training one-on-one with Kiba?" Hinata asked.

Shino nodded.

There was a loud noise as dust flew up and a tree fell over far away.

Kurenai bent down to examine the trunk of the fallen tree.

"Are you sure you can't control it anymore than that?" she asked.

Kiba shook his head.

"No. During Double Headed Wolf Fang, Akamaru and I are blind. Even with smell to guide us, the spinning makes it hard to go perfectly straight." he said.

"I see." Kurenai said, "Well, I think it's time to rejoin the others. They just took a break, we may as well make it lunch."

** section marker **

"Hmm… this feels familiar… and again, they've hidden themselves well." Kakashi mused to himself as he stood in the clearing, reading his book, "Too bad we don't have a Naruto in this case to pop out and-"

He made a slight grabbing motion with his hand as he sidestepped. Tamaru had charged at him with a Katana, and Kakashi grabbed his arm and shoved him to the ground.

"I stand corrected." Kakashi said.

"You're going to regret that." said Tamaru, smiling.

Shuriken whizzed in the air behind him as Kakashi ducked. Two more Tamaru's had emerged, joined by two more from the sides.

"This really is too familiar… Clones now? How much more about this team is going to be like Team 7?" Kakashi wondered.

Each of the clones held two Katana in their hands, in a unique style Kakashi had never seen before.

"This is my Dual Katana style." said Tamaru, "Here I come!"

Several moments later, the real Tamaru stood, panting, as four Katana lay on the ground.

"Don't… underestimate me!" Tamaru shouted, throwing a handful of Shuriken at Kakashi, who easily dodged.

And then leapt out of the way again as the same Shuriken came at him again from behind.

"What the-?" Kakashi thought, eyes wide. The Shuriken were glowing with blue Chakra, curving back around from their miss to head back towards him.

Tamaru walked over to two of his Katanas, and picked them up. A bluish glow appeared from his hand as he infused his Chakra with the weapons, then threw the Katana at Kakashi too. He picked up his last two, and held them in case Kakashi came at him close-up.

Kakashi ran into the cover of trees, the weapons still following him.

"I see… he infuses his Chakra into the weapons, which gives him remote control over them. Clever." Kakashi thought, "I bet Hayate taught him that one."

One of Tamaru's Katanas suddenly pulled in front of Kakashi, slicing through a tree on the way. The tree fell over, blocking Kakashi's path.

"Apparently the Chakra gives them extra cutting power too…"

The weapons hurled forward and stabbed into him…

But, as revealed in a puff of smoke, that Kakashi was only a log.

** section marker **

_Bang! Clank!_The sounds from Lee and Tenten's sparring could be heard even from this clearing. Lee was using his nunchaku and Tenten whatever weapon she wanted to at the moment, she had so many.

"Neji, what I'm about to teach you is originally one of my own and Lee's move. I think it would come in handy for you, and with your superb chakra control, you should be able to master it easily." Gai said.

Neji nodded respectfully, but didn't look too impressed. What could Gai teach him that would help a Hyuuga? Not that Gai wasn't powerful, but… the Hyuuga style was the Hyuuga style, and couldn't be mixed with anything else. What need did he have for brute force attacks?

"This attack," said Gai, "Is not in Gentle Fist style."

Neji knew that already. Gai and Lee didn't do anything in Gentle Fist style anyway.

"It should only be used to attack if your foe has put up a barrier or some sort, or if you're destroying an obstacle in your way. Close your fist." Gai instructed.

Neji sighed, closing his fists. His Hyuuga Gentle Fist stance just didn't feel right with closed fists, so he awkwardly held his fists in front of him, like a boxing fighter.

"It's simple enough to learn. Focus as much chakra as you can at one time to your fist, like so." Gai said.

Gai's fist began to radiate blue, and it looked like he was wearing a glove made of chakra.

"Then, when you're at your limit and feel like you can't hold it anymore… PUNCH!" Gai exclaimed, striking a nearby tree. He took a large portion out of the side of the trunk, enough so that the weight was lopsided and came down with a crash.

Neji sighed. Such a brute force attack was not his style, but he'd learn it anyway. Why not, right?

** section marker **

"Let's see if the girl is as good as Tamaru…" Kakashi thought.

Rasha walked slowly into the clearing as leaves shot up around her, whirling about in a whirlwind. Groans came from behind the trees in front of her, and Tamaru and Raigra crawled out, impaled by Shuriken and Kunai and begging for help.

"Kakashi. You do know about my Kekkai Genkai, right?" she said.

"Heh. She's good." he thought, leaping down in front of her as she dispelled the Genjutsu.

"Like the Sharingan or Byakugan, my Seigan can see through and dispel Genjutsus easily." Rasha said, her eyes flashing an azure color.

"And my Sharingan protects me from being mind-read so easily." said Kakashi, pointing to his left eye, "So, show me what you can do."

Rasha took out two Kunai, throwing one and Kakashi. As he dodged to the side, he saw that with the same motion of the throw she had cut a string with the second Kunai. A flurry of projectiles came at him, and he was forced to reverse directions to avoid being hit.

"That Seigan of hers is pretty good," thought Kakashi, "Even without being able to puncture deep in my mind and use Genjutsus on me, she can read my surface thoughts enough to know my reactions to what she does before I do them. In fact, she's probably driving me towards a certain point for a reason…"

She threw a kunai at the tree he was about to land on, slightly above his head. It struck something disguised with the bark… an explosive tag!

Kakashi leapt off as quickly as possible. She threw three senbon at him. He deflected two with a kunai, and the third missed, passing close by his hip. He landed on the ground, then gasped when the ground gave way beneath him. He fell down the pitfall, landing at the bottom.

"That good enough for you?" she said, walking first to the pitfall, then over to the tree.

A bell with a senbon through its string hung on the tree.

"It must have been that third senbon that I thought had missed, but she was really aiming for the bell all along!" thought Kakashi, "Man, she really is good. But…"

"Your plan was a good one, but thankfully my Sharingan blocked enough of your Seigan to conceal the fact that I- and thus, the bell too- am a Shadow Clone!"

The Kakashi in the pit and the bell she was holding vanished in a puff of smoke.

** section marker **

"Asuma, shouldn't we be training some more? I mean, the Chuunin Exams start tomorrow." Ino asked.

"No way! We worked our tails off this morning, now it's time to EAT!" Chouji exclaimed, excited as ever to be at the Korean Barbeque place. The waitress came by and put more meat on the stove fire, which Chouji watched carefully.

"Calm down, Chouji. But he is partially right. Shikamaru always said relaxing was just as important as working. And he was the one who passed last time, right?" Asuma said.

"Well… ok, yeah, but he was Shikamaru. Not to offend anyone here, but none of us here have 200 IQ. And he probably just said that because he was lazy." Ino commented.

"Hey, like you said, the Exams start tomorrow. You guys have been working hard over the past week, and I think you deserve some relaxing time. Rest up before the Exam. I mean, your mind and body have to be rested and ready for tomorrow. Especially your mind." Asuma said.

"Especially our minds? So does that mean the first test is going to be a written Exam again?" Sakura asked.

"Well… I don't know. But as tradition goes, the first test tends to be more mentally oriented to weed out as many as possible, and then the second is more combat-focused. And then, if too many survive the two tests, the preliminary rounds test each individual's combat skills. But the tests change a lot. None of us know what it's going to be from one year to the next, unless we get chosen to be a proctor." Asuma said.

"In that case, I can see why we'd want to rest." Sakura said.

"Eh… I won't deny I could use it." Ino commented.

"THE FOOD'S READY!" Chouji exclaimed, starting to stuff meat into his mouth. The other three sighed in exasperation and tried to claim what food they could before Chouji the eating machine got to it.

** section marker **

"He's just… reading." Raigar thought, "Now's my chance!"

He leapt out of the tree into the clearing, throwing a handful of Kunai at Kakashi, who blocked them all one handed with his own Kunai. When he landed, Raigar ran at Kakashi and began to do a onslaught of Taijutsu blows on Kakashi, who was still reading and fighting with one hand.

"He's fighting with one hand too…" Kakashi thought, surprised, lowering his book, "What the- his right hand is missing!"

Indeed, Raigar was fighting only with his left hand, for his right hand was gone. Raigar's stump of a right arm hung useless at his side.

_Jingle!_

Kakashi looked down in surprise at a hand grabbing at the bells at his hip. He recoiled in revulsion as he twisted away from the hand and Raigar, leaping back.

"This is my Kekkai Genkai." said Raigar as his right hand reattached seamlessly to his right arm, "With it, I can do things like… this!"

Raigar pulled out two Kunai and threw his arms forward… but didn't throw the Kunai. Instead, his hands launched off at Kakashi. He dodged to the side, only to find the hands following him around.

"That may be so…" he said, fending off the hands, "But while they're attacking, you're leaving yourself defenseless!"

Kakashi disappeared and reappeared behind Raigar, slashing with his Kunai. Metal struck metal.

"Oh, really?" said Raigar, having to talk around the Kunai in his mouth.

"Hmm. Very interesting indeed." Kakashi said, leaping backwards again. He activated his Sharingan as the hands dropped their Kunai and rushed forward at him again, forming hand signs, even though they were away from each other.

"Amazing… even though each hand is only doing half of the hand sign, it's achieving the same effect. So… not only does Raigar's Kekkai Genkai to detach and reattach his limbs, but the chakra flow remains the same the whole time, as if the hands were on his arms and forming hand signs together. That means…"

The hands were now on either side of Kakashi. Raigar's hands stopped forming hand signs.

"Fire Style: Fire Burst!" Raigar exclaimed, as fire burst forth from each hand, forming a raging pyroclasm in the middle.

When the smoke cleared, Raigar saw nothing. His hands reattached to his arms.

He felt a sudden pressure on his ankle as a hand shot up from the ground. Within seconds he was in the ground, with Kakashi standing over him.

"Good, but not good enough." he said.

"Oh really?" asked Raigar, "Earth Style, Earth Burst!" he yelled, and the ground in front of him rumbled and began to rupture. Kakashi leapt off of it, but it gave Raigar enough space to get out.

"I think we've had enough fun for now." said Kakashi, as Tamaru and Rasha ran into the clearing.

"Where is he? I had him, I had him!" Tamaru exclaimed, then saw him in the middle of the three, "There he is! I'm going to get you good this time, Kakashi!"

"Is this the real one this time?" asked Rasha, turning on her Seigan, "It is. Let's get him!"

"Sounds good to me." said Raigar.

"Well, looks like you're going to have to wait till next time, because it's nearly sunset now and you need your rest for the Exam tomorrow. I didn't really expect you all to get the bells anyway." Kakashi shrugged.

"What are you talking about? We're not done yet!" said Tamaru.

"Oh yes, we are." said Kakashi, "It takes and hour to get back to the village, and you want supper, don't you?"

As if to respond, Tamaru's stomach rumbled.

"But if you didn't think we'd actually get the bells, what was the point of them?" asked Raigar.

Kakashi shrugged again.

"To motivate you to come at me for real. I had to see what you were capable of, and I can say for sure I'm impressed with what I saw."

"But now you won't be able to help us improve, since it's tomorrow." said Rasha.

"I think you'll do just fine." said Kakashi, "Well, see you at the Preliminaries, if you make it that far."

With that, Kakashi disappeared.

"He really is something else." said Rasha.

"He wasn't as cool as Hayate…" Tamaru grumbled.

"Let's face it, Tamaru, in your eyes, nobody is as good as Hayate." Raigar said.

Mentioning Hayate got everybody in a contemplative mood. Tamaru seemed sad and angry as he walked off, Rasha respectful of the dead, and Raigar… well, maybe he felt ashamed for mentioning the forbidden subject.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I still don't own Naruto.**

**Note: I don't like using section marker to divide sections but does anyone else know of a better idea? Everything else I tried didn't work…**

**Chapter 5**

**Outwitting a Genius: Shikamaru's Test!**

"We have to hurry! We can't be late!" Sakura yelled to Chouji.

"Easy for you to say!" he protested, "I didn't even finish breakfast before you barged in and toppled me out of bed!"

"That's the problem! You eat so much you can't keep up!" Ino said.

Sakura sighed. They really were going to be late if they didn't hurry.

"What did you say?" Chouji yelled angrily.

Sakura had an idea.

"Hey, Ino…" she said, whispering the idea. Ino brightened.

"Hey, you fat fatso! What's your middle name, 'fatty?'" Ino called back to him, sticking out her tongue.

"INO!!!!!" he yelled, running faster than they knew he could. Faster, Sakura thought, than even Lee.

"There we go," said Sakura, "But now we have to speed up too or who knows what he'll do if he catches us?"

They reached the building and ran up the two flights of stairs quickly, aware of an enraged Chouji on their heels.

"At least they didn't cast a genjutsu to change the floor numbers again…" Sakura thought, "That was nice of them. They must be confident about their test to fail us if they didn't try any cheap tricks like last time."

The reached the desk in a hurry, Ino casting a variation of her mind spells that temporarily stopped Chouji in his tracks as he caught up with them, fist raised. The jutsu seemed to calm him down, since he put down his hand and seemed more relaxed. Ino released the jutsu and found, to her relief, that it had worked; Chouji was calm and didn't remember any of the things Ino had said a few moments before.

"Team 10 is here." Sakura said, out of breath.

"Oh? Good timing, you just made it. Asuma's already waiting for you." the secretary said, ushering them in.

Like before, the room was packed with formidable looking ninja left and right, their Jounin leaders standing to the side. They found Asuma quickly to set his mind at peace that they had arrived, then walked around, searching.

"Hey, Sakura!" called a voice.

"Lee…" Sakura thought. It was this very building where Lee had asked her to be his girlfriend. She didn't want a repeat of that again.

Fortunately, he didn't seem to have anything of the sort on his mind right now.

"Hey, you guys. You're rather late." said Tenten as Team 9 approached Team 10.

"We made it just in time, actually." said Ino proudly, as if it were some great accomplishment.

"Well I did five hundred laps around this building and still had five minutes to spare." Lee bragged.

"Yeah, and you woke up at 6:00 to start." Tenten pointed out.

Lee visibly deflated.

"Did you notice too, Neji?" asked Sakura.

The others turned to her, as if to say, _What the heck are you talking about?_

"Yeah." he said, "No genjutsu on the classroom number. And Kotetsu and Izumo weren't there to try to stop us from entering either. Something's different this time around."

"Either we're all missing something, or they are really confident in their test to knock out a large portion of the entrees." Sakura finished.

This seemed to dampen everybody's spirits.

"Attention everybody! Please make a single file line, to get your seat number." said Shizune from the doorway. The line instantly formed, and the line slowly thinned. Both Teams 9 and 10 were near the end. It took over twenty minutes to assign seats to the over 200 ninja, even though Shizune had the chart right in front of her.

Sakura was next in line.

"Seat 22, over on the far left side of the room." she said to Sakura.

"Seat 289, that corner seat just to my right." she said to Ino.

"Seat 112, near the center." she told Chouji.

None of the three were sitting anywhere near anyone they knew. Apparently all the teams were likewise situated, being on entirely different ends of the room from where their teammates were. Except for Lee and Tenten, who were five rows apart from each other, nobody was anywhere close to their teammates.

Sakura took a good look around the room. She didn't recognize any Chuunin planted in the crowd of ninja this time, at least not any Konoha ones she would recognize. And considering she had to see almost every ninja in the village at some time or another for some medical reason, she felt safe to assume that this year, there were no plants.

On the side, like last time, there were many Chuunin and Jounin who sat in chairs or stood alertly. The only odd thing, she noticed, was Shikamaru standing in a corner, one foot against the wall, apparently doing nothing.

"All right," said Shizune, moving to the front of the room, "I'm going to come around and give out your tests. Don't turn them over yet."

Seat Number 1 was Neji. Some irony that was, Sakura thought.

"Your name?" Shizune asked brusquely, even though Sakura was sure she knew already. She was putting on a show, perhaps.

"Hyuuga, Neji." he said.

She nodded, looking at the chart in her hand, then ruffling through the papers. She slid a paper face down on his desk.

"Don't even think about using Byakugan." she said.

He blinked, Shizune searching his face. As soon as she was satisfied that the trademark bulging veins of an active Byakugan were not showing, she moved on to the next person.

Shizune reached her, finally.

"Name?" she said.

"Haruna, Sakura." Sakura said.

She wordlessly slid another piece of paper on her desk.

"Why all the name stuff and the chart?" wondered Sakura, "Why not just pass out all the tests quickly."

It was taking much longer to pass out the tests as it did to assign seats. Over thirty minutes into the undertaking, Sakura felt an odd sensation hit her back and spread up her. Her vision blacked.

Inner Sakura gasped and looked around in blackness, and was surprised to find the spiritual form of Ino in her body.

"Ino! What are you doing here!" Inner Sakura screamed.

"I have to tell you something. I just talked to Shikamaru this same way since I was getting bored of the waiting… But I found out something by accident that might be valuable. I don't know if Shikamaru meant for me to figure out- he usually isn't so careless- but either way, we should use it to our advantage." Ino said.

"Ok…" Inner Sakura started, "Now quit babbling and tell me!"

"All right, all right. Anyway, I found out that this test that we're about to take… Shikamaru wrote it!" Ino said.

Sakura was stunned. Shikamaru? The 200 IQ genius wrote the test they were about to take?

"We're doomed." Inner Sakura whispered.

"Don't say that! We don't even know what the test is yet!" Ino said encouragingly.

"Heh, I didn't think you could hear that. Anyway, Shikamaru's not too motivated and all, so he probably didn't put much effort into making this hard. If anything, we should be happy Ibiki didn't do it again." Inner Sakura thought.

"Unless he was motivated…" Ino commented, "Tsunade can get pretty scary when she wants to be."

"True." Inner Sakura replied, "Now get out of my body and go tell Chouji."

Ino's presence left compliantly. Sakura blinked once, control of her body returning to her in a snap.

_How long did that conversation take? _Wondered Sakura, seeing that Shizune was almost done with the whole room now.

She looked at the paper in front of her, as if she had the Byakugan and was trying to see through it to see what was on the other side. _What could it be, what could it be? _She had to assume that Shikamaru had tried his hardest to make this test. If that was so, she was facing a mind of 200 IQ. No matter. She, too, was known for her brain. Kakashi called her the best Genin mind in Konoha on the Zabuza mission- but he didn't know about Shikamaru then.

Could she really butt heads with a genius? Could she outwit the master of wits? It seemed like a challenge that her, if anyone, could handle… but still…

"All right, you will have thirty minutes to complete this test. Under no circumstances is cheating allowed- the Chuunin and Jounin here will assure to that. If your or one of your teammates fail, the whole team fails." Shizune said, returning to the front of the room.

_All right… nothing new there… _thought Sakura.

"You may turn over your papers."

The room was filled with the rustle of paper as they revealed their tests.


	6. Chapter 6

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO AT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!**

**Note: Instead of section marker (because that looks ugly) I'm going to do x's. Now I don't think they'll make the x's go away, so it should be fine.**

**Chapter 6**

**Mental Breakdown: What is the Trick?**

Tamaru flipped over his paper at the same time as everyone else. Ten questions, he saw. If he spent less than three minutes a question, he'd be fine…

The thing is, Tamaru was never really the brightest kid in his class… he normally got a B or C on a written test.

_1. What is the proper name for a bloodline limit that is passed on from parents who also have the same ability?_

_Well, that's not too hard… _thought Tamaru, _though I guess some people might not have known it. I'm lucky to have two teammates with Kekkai Genkai, I guess._

He wrote down "Kekkai Genkai" in the blank and moved on the second question.

_2. How many different names are assigned to an ANBU in an average month?_

Tamaru started blankly at the question, not comprehending. Did he read it right?

He read it twice. Three times.

_WHAT THE HECK?!?!?! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT?!?!?!?!? Stupid test…_

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_Okay… calm down. _Sakura said to herself, _You know from last year not to take anything at face value. There's got to be some trick to this test._

She looked back down at her paper in exasperation.

_1. How many landmines would it take to cover a 200,000 square foot field so that anywhere an intruder stepped would activate exactly two mines?_

_Well, it's not really an answerable question. _Sakura thought, _It would depend on the type of landmine… and because the landmine zones are circular there's always either going to be an empty space or three mine zones overlapping._

So the question couldn't be answered.

Thus, there had to be some trick to it.

She just had to find it.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Temari blinked. She stared at her paper in amazement.

The landmine question on number 1 she had skipped, thinking that it would take a lot of math and work and she could do it later if she had time.

_Huh? This one seems easier…_

_2. What are the names of the five Great Shinobi Villages?_

_Well, the Sand, Leaf, Mist, Cloud, and Rock. That was easy. Hmm…maybe she could do this test after all…_

_3. How many Kunoichi died in the Great Shinobi Wars?_

_DANGIT!_

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Well… there was the landmine question, and then the ANBU question after that… but question 3 seemed simple enough.

_3. What are the three main types of jutsu?_

Sakura wrote down the answer: "Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, and Genjutsu".

She looked at the next question. Better to get a scope of the whole test before scrutinizing it. She'd figure out the trick soon enough.

_4. What is the volume of a Shuriken, if its center hole is two inches in diameter and the length between the points is 5 inches, the slope of the angle from the center to the point is 110 degrees?_

She groaned. She doubted any of them had taken Calculus yet, and this seemed like a Calculus problem. Another impossible one.

_5. Summoning requires two things: a contract and what?_

_Well, blood. _Sakura thought as she wrote down the answer. Another easy question.

Her eyes scanned down the rest of the test.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Neji gained a sense of confidence after the first question about the Kekkai Genkai. It deflated as soon after the ANBU question.

_Something's up… _he thought, as he started looking at the rest of the questions.

The question about the Kunoichi in the Great Shinobi Wars caught him off guard. Around a third of Ninja forces were Kunoichi on average, and he knew the estimate for the total number of casualties… but then again, the male/female ratios were probably different back then. How were they supposed to answer this one?

He didn't even bother thinking twice about the Shuriken volume question. Now that was just plain ridiculous.

_5. How many Kekkai Genkai's exist in the world?_

_Now THAT is impossible. _Neji thought, _Nobody's ever made a thorough search and count of them. And new Kekkai Genkai's are always being born off of existing ones, like the Sharingan did from the Byakugan._

_6. Squads are most efficient with this number of people._

_Four, _thought Neji as he wrote it, _that's a basic Ninja principle. We would all know that. So there were a few easy questions stuck into the hard ones, it seemed. But why? Was it part of the trick?_

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hinata looked down at her paper. She had three answers written down. She was able to answer numbers 3, 5, and 7. But the others were far too hard. How would she be able to show how much she had improved if she couldn't even get past this test.

She looked at questions 8 and 9. Both too hard. What was with this test? Some were so easy that everybody would know it, and the rest were so hard that nobody could possibly know the answers to them. She looked at the final question.

_10. What is teamwork?_

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_Teamwork? _Thought Gaara. _Well, I guess Kankuro and Temari are. They're my teammates. I guess… I would have said a different answer last time I was doing this, but after the situation with Matsuri, the Artisan people, and Naruto's group a year ago, I've come to think differently._

_Teamwork is people working together for the good of each other and towards a common goal, no matter what the cost. _He wrote.

Then he blinked.

_Could it really be that easy?_

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tamaru gasped as he felt something squeeze his leg.

He forced himself to calm down, letting one of his hands fall off the desktop, seeming as natural as possible. He reached his hand down as far as it would go without bending over. He felt Raigar's hand touch his, then squeeze their palms together, like a handshake. He felt wet ink pass from Raigar's hand press onto his own, and then the hand left.

_Now why is Raigar sending his hand around to us? Did he figure something out? Because I sure haven't… except for 1, 6, and 8 this test seems impossible. Well, and question 10. That seemed pretty straightforward too._

He started to bring his hand up to look at Raigar's message when a kunai whizzed by his ear, striking the desk behind him. He froze, petrified.

"You there, you and your team are disqualified!" Shizune exclaimed, pointing a finger in his direction.

"Shikamaru, mark off Seat 57 and teammates." she instructed the kid who looked like he was falling asleep in the corner. He yawned and pulled out a clipboard, striking through a few names.

Tamaru sighed in relief. He was seat 47. _That was close… _he thought as the person behind him rose to leave the room in disgrace.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sakura had just finished reading the tenth question when she felt herself falling under one of Ino's mind jutsus. She let herself black out, and felt her spiritual essence being pulled across the room… into Ino's body.

She found herself on a field of blackness, with nothing in it at all. It was just empty space.

Suddenly an image wavered in front of her and Chouji appeared.

"Oh, hi, Sakura. You know what's going on?" he asked.

"Umm… no, not really." she said.

Then Ino appeared.

"Okay, this is one of my special jutsus. We've got to have a meeting." she said.

Sakura and Chouji glanced at each other, then nodded at Ino.

"The test, right?" Sakura asked.

Ino nodded.

"I hope this isn't too obvious." Sakura said, "If they think we're cheating they'll disqualify us, like they did to that one person a minute ago."

"It's not," Ino assured, "I've put your bodies in a basic routine of writing something down, thinking a few moments, erasing it, then going into a thinking position, and repeating. It looks completely natural. We can talk safely."

"Since when could you do that?" Sakura asked.

"Ever since we decided to have our own discussions without Asuma's hearing at the Korean Barbeque Place. I can even mimic Chouji stuffing all that meat in his mouth." Ino said.

"Hmm… that's cool. So we can discuss things then. But what good does that do us?" Sakura said.

"Well… maybe if we put our heads together we can come up with something. Teamwork, you know?" Chouji suggested.

_Teamwork… _Sakura thought, _The tenth question…_

"All right, Sakura. Don't leave us in the dark. We can tell you thought of something just now." Ino said.

"Well, it's not really helpful." Sakura said, "But the tenth question was asking 'What is teamwork' or something like that."

Ino laughed.

"Well, that's what gave me this idea… I wrote down 'Having companions that will come help when you need help' and then realized that I definitely needed help on this test. Which is what we're here discussing for." Ino said.

"Yeah… I definitely need help on most of them. I could only answer four questions, there was that teamwork question and-" Chouji was saying.

"Same here." Ino said.

"Yeah, only four." Sakura agreed.

"-questions 2, 4, and 9." he finished his earlier statement, looking slightly irritated.

For a while nobody spoke.

"Wait, Chouji? How did you know that ANBU question?" Ino asked.

"What?" he asked.

"Number 2." Sakura said, curious as well.

"What are you talking about? Number 2 was just some lame question about the five Great Shinobi Villages… everybody knows that…" Chouji was saying.

"Hang on a second." Ino said, vanishing.

"I think you got it all wrong, Chouji." Sakura said, "The easy ones were 3, 5, and 7. I don't know what you're talking about the Great Shinobi Villages, but number 2 was some impossible question about an ANBU's names."

Chouji stared at her blankly.

"Weird." he said finally, "My 3 was some junk about Kunoichi. My five was some random thing about all the Kekkai Genkai's in the world…"

They were both interrupted as Ino reappeared, holding three copies of paper in her hands.

"Okay, guys. I have astral copies of our tests here. Let's take this nice and slow. she said, setting down each test in front of the owner. They all sat in a triangle and started comparing.

"Srange." Chouji said finally.

"Ino and I have the same hard question 2, while you have an easy one. My easy question 3 is the only one out of ours, you and Ino have a hard question 3." Sakura said.

"And Ino had an easy question 1 while we didn't." Chouji finished.

"Well one thing's for sure," Ino said, "The tests are different."


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: Own Naruto, I do not. Speaking Yoda talk, I am.**

**Chapter 7**

**Swift Stealth: Cheating Under the Radar!**

_What is this supposed to mean? _Tamaru thought, looking at the note in his hand. The ink was already fading, so he read quickly. If Raigar went through all the trouble risking being disqualified for cheating, this was probably something useful. Or at least, Tamaru hoped it was. Raigar wasn't the type to do something needlessly though, so it probably was helpful in some way.

_Test must be rigged… maybe a trick… read between the lines… able to answer 2, 4, 9, and 10… think loudly what you want to say to us.._

_Well that's an odd note… _thought Tamaru. Test must be rigged, maybe a trick. That was pretty straightforward. Read between the lines obviously meant look for the trick. As for thinking loudly, he was probably telling Rasha right now to turn on her Seigan and read both their minds, so that they could communicate through her.

It was the part about 2, 4, 9, and 10 that got him. Yes, he had answered question 10, that was about the teamwork. But 2, 4, and 9 were impossible! Maybe Raigar meant 1, 6, and 8. Those were the ones that were easy enough for Tamaru.

_NOT RAIGAR'S QUESTIONS FOR ME, FOR ME THEY ARE 1, 6, 8, AND 10! _He thought as "loudly" as he could. He wasn't sure what thinking loudly consisted of but he kept repeating the same message over and over again in his head, thinking of nothing else. Meanwhile, he rubbed the message off his hand.

Sure enough, three minutes later he felt a hand press his ankle again. He received the ink message from Raigar's hand.

_All different easy questions… 2, 4, 9 for me, 1, 6, 8 for you, 3, 5, 7 for Rasha. 10 same for all of us. Think us your thoughts._

Tamaru sat, confused, rubbing the message off. So they all had different "easy" questions, and the rest were hard. Well, except for 10, and that was something random about teamwork. What was that supposed to mean?

_I HAVE NO CLUE BUT I THINK WE'RE GETTING SOMEWHERE. WHY ARE THEY ALL DIFFERENT AND WHY IS 10 THE SAME? _He thought over and over again.

The answer came a few moments later as a cold hand pressed against his ankle.

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When it came to scouting, they were the best. When it came to communicating, though, that was a little harder.

Akamaru had spied on everyone in the room from Kiba's head, relaying the messages to him. Hinata used her Byakugan and Shino used his bugs to achieve the same. Quicker than everyone else, they had come to the conclusion that all the tests were different except for question 10.

_So I have 1, 6, and 8; Shino has 2, 4, and 9, and Hinata has 3, 5, and 7. But why? Why are all of the questions different?_

Akamaru told him next that each of the teams in the room were like them, having different tests with one having 1, 6, and 8, the next 2, 4, and 9, etc. etc.

_So the teams all have different tests._

Kiba flipped his paper over as he saw one of Shino's bugs crawling onto his desk. The bug gathered some ink off of Kiba's pen onto its antennae, then began to walk around. First it drew the numbers 1-10 downwards, then wrote K, S, and H at the top going horizontally. A chart, Kiba guessed.

Then it started to walk to different places in the chart and form a check. It checked off the questions that each of them had been able to answer in their respective columns and rows, checking three times all the way across on number 10, then flew away, presumably to do the same on Hinata's paper.

Kiba stared at the chart dumbly. Number 10 had three checks in its row, and the other 9 had one each in different columns. It didn't make any sense to him.

_What was he missing?_

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Just like last time, Team 9 was using Tenten's mirror on strings trick to work their magic. Neji, who was at the front of the room, saw the mirror with Byakugan; since Lee was behind her, Lee had no trouble seeing her mirror.

They wrote simple messages on the back of their papers that seemed to convey the same confusion with all three of them. They, like the others, had compared their info and found what the others had, but couldn't make sense of it. Finally, Lee wrote his absolute cluelessness and Tenten had to agree as well. It didn't make any sense at all.

So, it was left up to Neji, the Hyuuga genius. Then again, there was nobody Tenten would rather put the fate of their team in then him. If anybody in the room could piece this puzzle together, maybe he could. It wasn't as if either she or Lee were having any luck.

Finally Neji wrote a message and Tenten tilted the mirror that way.

_What do you think of this? _the message said, then had the numbers 1-10 going downwards. Then it had the word "Easy" at the top, and the letters of their names going downwards next to the numbers 1-10.

_N, T, L, T, L, N, L, N, T, E. _It said.

Okay… so there were each of their initials, and E probably meant everybody. So Neji was showing them the order of who had the easy questions with which numbers, and that everybody had the same number 10. What was the point?

After showing it to Lee, she wrote her question and showed it to him.

_The point of it I'm still figuring out. _came the reply.

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After looking around with his sand eye, Gaara decided to confer with the others. He sent grains of sand to each of their desks, where they would arrange themselves into a message.

Temari could speak back to both he and Kankuro with one of her wind techniques, whispering and using the air to carry the sound all the way to their ears. Kankuro just wrote his responses on his paper and let Gaara's eye see it, who would then tell Temari.

Temari had long since determined that Shikamaru must have written this test, and that made her all the more angry. She saw him standing in a corner, apparently bored out of his mind- he wasn't looking for cheaters, apparently there for no reason.

Except, thought Temari, to oversee the test. And why would he do that? Because he wrote it.

They were competing with a genius.

Then again, maybe he was just there solely for his apparent purpose- to mark off names of those who were disqualified. But she doubted it.

Speaking of disqualification, more and more were getting disqualified by the moment. As people started getting desperate and deciding they couldn't solve it on their own, they turned to teamwork- like Gaara had- but their teamwork ended up getting them all disqualified.

But their teamwork wasn't as discreet as their teamwork.

Then something clicked in her mind and she hid her mouth so she could whisper to the two of them.

Gaara looked up as she heard Temari's voice whisper to them.

"What is the significance of ten." she said.

Gaara thought about it, then sent his sand to respond.

_The mentioning of Teamwork got everybody thinking of talking to their teams, like it did for me._ He replied.

"Yes, but why?" she asked.

They were silent for a time. She had their brain gears turning, heading towards the right direction that she was thinking.

"Think quicker." she said after a few minutes passed, "We only have five minutes left."

The response came immediately in sand.

_Kankuro says- and I agree- that it's because we're SUPPOSED to talk to our teams._

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"But that's what I'm saying!" Ino said, exasperated, "If what you're saying is true, then that means that the two of us that have hard questions are the ones we have to answer, which we can't answer anyway."

"It was just a thought." said Chouji defensively.

"Look, we're talking as a team like we're supposed to be. We've established that. Now the question is, why?" Ino asked.

"Maybe we'd figure it out if you quit shouting." said Chouji.

"Maybe if you had studied more in stead of eating so much you could actually offer half-good ideas!" Ino retorted.

"Quiet, you two! I'm trying to think!" Sakura said.

They were silent.

_Chouji's thoughts may not be thought out all the way but at least they're thoughts. _Thought Sakura, _Ino already gave up and is resorting to criticizing Chouji. But actually, some of his ideas aren't half-bad. I just haven't been able to think it through because of all the shouting._

"All right." she said, calmly, "Chouji, what was your last suggestion?"

"Well… that maybe the easy questions are there to throw us off, to make us feel right when we're not." he said.

Sakura rubbed her temples.

"Hmm… that doesn't seem quite right, but…" she began.

"SEE? I told you!" Ino shouted.

"Quiet!" Sakura cut her off, "But… maybe the other way around…"

Then something clicked in her brain, like a veil being taken away from her sight.

"Stupid." she said.

"What?" Chouji asked.

"No, not you. Me. It's so obvious!" she said.

Ino brightened visibly.

"You solved it?" she asked.

"I… I think so." Sakura said, "Here's what we're going to do…"

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_Rasha has hunch. Write these answers down quickly in order. _The message from Raigar said, followed by a list of answers.

Tamaru brightened. Rasha was smarter than he was, and about equal with Raigar. But the difference was that Tamaru trusted Rasha more than Raigar. If Raigar had told him to write down a list of answers for the most important test of his life, he would have argued to the bitter end. Instead, he just went with it.

_Kekkai Genkai_

Tamaru looked at his paper. He already had that down. Good, he actually had something right for a change.

_Leaf, Sand, Mist, Cloud, Rock_

Tamaru frowned. This answer made no sense with the ANBU question. But, he decided to go along with it. He wrote down the five words.

_Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, Genjutsu_

Tamaru felt annoyed again. This answer didn't make sense at all to "How many Kunoichi died in the Great Shinobi Wars", but he didn't really have a better idea… he wrote down the three too…

And the list continued all the way to question 9, the ones he had already answered were the same as what he had in the first place, while the answers to the hard questions made no sense at all. But he just went along with it, and right as he finished writing down number 9 when…

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Shino's chart had given Hinata an idea. She had conveyed it to the others as fast as she could, acutely aware of the fading time. She hoped she was right, because…

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Tenten put her full trust in Neji, and Lee appeared to as well. His idea was odd, and when she inquired about it all she received as reply was: _Low time, just write, I'll explain later._

_All right, _she thought, copying the list of gibberish answers, _But you had better be right, Hyuuga Neji, or there will be consequences. Namely, me being ticked off at you for life. _

_We'll see soon enough…_

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Gaara sighed contentedly as he finished writing it down. The three of them put their brains together and came up with something: It didn't seem too plausible but it was better than nothing, and since they came up with it together it wouldn't be so bad if they were wrong.

_Teamwork… _he thought, _Now THIS is what teamwork is really about…_

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"TIME!" Shizune exclaimed suddenly as the secondhand hit the twelve exactly. Sakura was glad; she had finished with just enough time leftover. That was close. Too close.

"Put your pencils down, I'll come collect your papers. No talking!" she snapped.

Sakura almost laughed. This façade Shizune was doing… Tsunade must have made her do it… it was so unlike the Shizune Sakura knew that it was funny. But, most people didn't know that…

Once she had come around and collected all the papers, she exited the room, probably to go grade the tests. Once the door closed an eerie silence filled the room, the quiet of anticipation.

Then, to most people's surprise (except Temari, Ino, Chouji, and Sakura), Shikamaru walked away from the corner and stood at the front. He rubbed the back of his head with one of his hands and sighed.

"Honestly, I don't care if you talk or not, but I'm supposed to say this for some reason so I'm going to. It's troublesome, but I'm supposed to tell you… that test you just took? I wrote it." he said.

There were immediately shouts of outrage among the Ninja, the half of the original number of Ninja that hadn't been weeded out by being caught cheating.

"I knew it!" yelled Temari, bolting up out of her seat, and pointing at Shikamaru accusingly.

"Hey, hey, don't get mad at me, now, okay? It was way too troublesome, but I had to do it." he said.

"What was the deal with that test?" Tamaru asked, "Why couldn't you have made it something simple, like a personality survey?"

"Because you'd still fail the survey." Raigar said from across the room.

"Why you-" Tamaru said, turning, but Shikamaru cut him off.

"Sit down." he said, "That wasn't the point anyway. Had to make it hard, she says. Had to weed out a lot of people, she says. Too much work, I say."

He seemed to be talking to himself at this point.

"If I fail this test, Shikamaru, I'm going to… to…" Temari said threateningly, still pointing at him.

"Relax. You'll find out soon enough." he said.

Then he returned to the corner.

As if on cue, Shizune walked back in.

"All right, I'm going to call the names of those who passed." she said.

"Cloud Village, Team 18." she said.

A man stood up triumphantly, pointing at himself. Two other girls stood up and apologized humbly for "their teammates inappropriate behavior".

Team 9 shook their heads. _What a ridiculous team…_

"Sand Village, Team 1."

Both Temari and Shikamaru looked visibly relaxed, Temari because she passed, Shikamaru because now he wouldn't get killed by Temari. Kankuro and Gaara just sat motionless.

Shizune called the names of some other teams, then:

"Leaf Village, Team 10."

Sakura sighed in relief as Ino leapt up in exultation, raising a fist in the air. So her hunch had been right. Shikamaru had been very clever, but apparently, she had outwitted him in the end.

"Rock Village, Team 4."

Nobody stood or did anything of recognition. Team 8 glanced around for that strange Rock Team, eyeing them suspiciously once they found them.

"Leaf Village, Team 8."

"Way to go, Hinata!" Kiba exclaimed along with Akamaru's barks.

Hinata blushed and averted her gaze. _I'm actually being acknowledged._

More names of other teams.

"Leaf Village, Team 9."

_Way to go, Neji. _thought Tenten, _Your audacious idea paid off._

"Mist Village, Team 22." she said.

The three Mist Ninja stood and, led by the one in the center with the strange curved blades, bowed and sat.

_Those are the ones who attacked us for no reason. _Thought Sakura, _I'm not tricked by their polite act._

Shizune read more team names, until she held three more papers in her hand.

Most people were rejoicing too much to notice the Leaf team that was still sweating in anxiety, namely a certain Tamaru.

"And, finally… Leaf Village, Team 6." she said.

"YES!!!!!" Tamaru cried, leaping up out of his seat.

"Sit down." said Raigar as his hand jerked Tamaru's collar until he was forced back into his seat, then the hand shot back to Raigar.

About half of the other teams seemed incredibly disappointed, or outraged.

"WHAT? What do you mean, we failed? What was the right answer?" A particularly loud team member protested.

"It was really simple enough," said Shizune, "Tsunade thought too simple, but Shikamaru assured us it would work. Apparently, it did; it got rid of about a fourth of you."

"Each team consists of three people. Not counting the tenth question, which was the same for everyone, there were nine real questions. Divide that by three, you get three questions for each person. That's why everybody had three easy questions, along with other impossible questions. Nobody had the same easy questions in a team, and put together they formed questions 1-9. Question 10 was an opinion, so anything went for that." she said.

"Wait, so you're saying that the real test was a combination of the easy questions from all three of our tests?" asked the team member.

"That's right, and the answers accordingly." Shizune said, "That's why, for those of you who did figure it out, the answers didn't seem to match the hard question that was on your test for a certain number; that's because it _wasn't _supposed to match the hard question, but the easy question on one or your teammates tests."

"DAMMIT!" Yelled the angry person loudly as he stormed out the door.

Shizune shrugged.

"If you failed, please file out now." she said.

About half the room left, leaving about a fourth of the original number. The teams scooted back together now that they didn't have to be separated, discussing what had just happened.

"I thought you were insane." Tenten told Neji.

"At first, so did I." he said, chuckling.

Other various comments such as those were passed around before Shizune cleared her throat.

"Okay, anyway, Congratulations on making it through the first exam, and you will now rest up and meet tomorrow morning at 6:00 at the Forest of Death. If you don't know where it is buy a map: It's on all of them." Shizune said.

_So it IS going to be the Forest of Death again… _Sakura thought.

Shizune left the room, and the teams started filing out one by one, probably going to tell their instructors they passed. Once they told Asuma, he congratulated them and wanted to hear all about it, inviting them to Korean Barbeque (You can imagine Chouji was quite happy about it) for supper.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: You know the drill. I don't own Naruto.**

**Chapter 8**

**Test with a Twist: Revisiting the Forest of Death!**

The teams of ninja gathered in front of the Forest of Death, with their various reactions. None of them were particularly excited about going into the forest again, though they were convinced that if they did it once, they could do it again. And though they were determined to win no matter what, they still felt anxious about entering the forest. A five day life-or-death experience didn't fade out of people's minds too easily…

Genma walked to the front of them, raising his hand for silence.

"All right, everyone. If you made it here, good. Because any who aren't here as of yet are disqualified, as are their teams. It's 6:00 sharp so we're starting now." he said.

Sakura looked around. It looked like all the Leaf teams had all their people.

"This test will start today and end five days from now at midnight. The goal is simple: You will each be given one of these."

Genma held up a small copper coin on a chain.

"Each person needs three of these medals to pass into the tower." Genma said.

"So it is different from last time… where before, with the scrolls, you could get lucky and get the right set on the first team you beat, this time you have to beat at least two for sure." she thought, "They're trying to wear us out to thin the numbers more this time."

"However, defeating other teams is not the only way you can get medals." said Genma, "A limited number of them have been scattered through the forest, hidden. And also, a few Chuunin are also in the forest, and they have three medals each."

Sakura sighed in relief. So they didn't necessarily have to fight two teams, they could do any combination of finding medals, fighting teams, or fighting Chuunin. However, she was sure the medals would be well hidden, and she wasn't sure which was actually harder- defeating a Chuunin or three Genin. They'd both be a challenge, for sure.

"The Chuunin also double as a kind of rescue squad. If you get into trouble and need help, shout loud enough and a Chuunin is sure to come by and rescue you. However, this means that you're disqualified if a Chuunin has to rescue you." Genma said.

"That's really all there is to it- any questions? I mean, it's pretty straightforward… until you get in there." Genma said.

Nobody spoke.

"Good, then go to your respective gates and at my signal, enter." he said. The various teams began to disperse.

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"What do you think, Ino?" Sakura asked as they walked towards their gate.

"Isn't it obvious? We go find Shikamaru and get three from him. He's probably too lazy to really fight us, and he's the weakest out of the Chuunin anyway, being new and all." Ino said.

"Maybe so, but he's smart…" Sakura muttered.

"Either way, I'm sure we'll win!" Ino said optimistically.

"Really? Why?" Sakura asked.

"Because we're Team 10! Isn't that right, Chouji?" she replied.

Chouji grunted his affirmation in between eating chips.

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"All right, we're going to win for sure!" Kiba exclaimed as they walked to their gate.

"Why's that, Kiba?" Hinata asked.

"We're the best when it comes to scouting and searching! Our techniques will fish out those hidden medals in no time, isn't that right, Shino?" Kiba said.

Shino nodded.

"That… d-does sound like a good plan." Hinata said.

"Of course. We can take turns looking for medals and looking for enemies while the third person rests, that way we can keep up for days if we have to!" Kiba said, chuckling.

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"So, same plan as last time, right?" Tenten asked.

"Of course! Who wants to go digging around in the dirt when we can fight?" Lee said enthusiastically.

"Well, with my Byakugan we would have been able to look for the hidden ones… but he said there were only a limited number of those, so I say we just engage other teams or Chuunin for it." Neji said.

"Sounds like a plan. We did it last time, there's no way we can fail this time!" Lee exclaimed.

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The Sand Siblings walked towards their gate in silence for a long time. Finally Temari got fed up and broke the silence.

"You aren't going to kill anyone this time, right Gaara?" she asked.

Gaara shook his head.

"Do we actually have a plan?" Kankuro asked.

Gaara shrugged.

"We get those medals, one way or another." Gaara said, "It shouldn't be any trouble at all. We broke the record last time, remember? And this time we're even stronger."

"Well, unlike you two, I DO have a plan." Temari said, "And it should get us three medals easy. The other three we'll have to do something else to get though."

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"Yeah, I agree. None of us are really that good at searching. But what do you think will be easier, fighting other teams or a Chuunin?" Tamaru said.

"Probably the Chuunin. No matter how good the Chuunin is, it's still 3 on 1. We should win easy." said Raigar.

"It was 3 on 1 with Kakashi's bell test." Tamaru pointed out.

"Kakashi's a Jounin though." Raigar responded.

"True." Tamaru said.

"Well, I think that the Genin Teams will be easier." said Rasha, "They'll get careless more easily, allowing us to catch them separated or off guard. And we can all break up into 1 on 1 fighting groups and do what we do best."

"I agree with Rasha!" Tamaru said.

"Well, of course you do…" said Raigar.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Tamaru asked indignantly.

Raigar shrugged.

"You always agree with Rasha for the sake of agreeing with Rasha." he said.

"Well at least she isn't a moron like you!" Tamaru fired back.

"…Whatever. I made my point." said Raigar.

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Genma looked at his watch. It was 6:30, and all the teams had got to their gates. He raised his flare high, shooting a bright red missile high into the sky.

The gates flew open as the teams entered the Forest of Death.

After a short time, Genma followed, heading towards the tower where he would wait for the results.


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: Still don't own Naruto. If only they would auction the rights on Ebay…**

**Shoutout to the World: I KNEW Deidara wasn't actually dead!**

**Chapter 9**

**A Task Too Troublesome: Out Already?**

Shikamaru sailed through the trees. The Forest of Death was not a place he wanted to revisit either, especially alone, without his team. He had improved a little, but he was still alone and had three man teams going after him- talk about a troublesome drag.

Maybe he should just let the first team he saw take his medals. He didn't even want to do this, Tsunade forced him to. Just get rid of the medals and finish his job, he thought. Spoken like a true shirker.

A shout abruptly shattered his thoughts.

"-eeeeeeeelp ussssssss!" a voice was crying.

"Already? That was fast. Oh well, maybe they just got careless." Shikamaru said, rushing towards the sound of the voice.

He reached a clearing in the trees and spotted the three Waterfall-nin. One was tied to a tree with those invisible wires, one was on the ground, bleeding from multiple kunai wounds, and a third slumped against the tree unconscious. The one tied up was yelling frantically.

Shikamaru leapt down into the clearing, approaching the tied up one.

"You realize that calling me to help disqualified you, right?" Shikamaru said, cutting the wires.

"Unless we weren't calling for help to begin with." said the ninja, as it was revealed in a puff of smoke to be a puppet. The other two were revealed to be another puppet, and Kankuro, the Sand ninja.

Shikamaru's first instinct was to immediately leap back, but suddenly his feet were enveloped in sand. The sand crawled up his legs, until it had his legs and arms bound.

"Good job, Kankuro. Good plan, Temari." said Gaara, stepping out of the bush.

Shikamaru's eyes went wide with fear. _This guy…_

Gaara laughed, but not sinisterly.

"I'm not going to kill you. You can relax. I've changed a lot since last Chuunin Exam. We just want your medals." he said.

Temari stepped out of the bushes, still carrying her huge fan.

"Well, I see you did nothing to help." Shikamaru said teasingly.

"Are you kidding?" she said, with a twinkle in her eye, "I came up with the whole plan. I knew you'd be easy to trick, Mr. Crybaby."

"Troublesome woman." he retorted.

"Just get the medals." Gaara said irritably.

Kankuro was busy cutting Karasu down from being tied to the tree trunk.

Temari made a show of finding the three medal straps on the back of Shikamaru's neck, tracing the strap down either side of his neck, meeting in front of his neck. Shikamaru shivered.

Gaara arched an eyebrow.

She unbuttoned the top button on his shirt. Shikamaru suddenly felt very uncomfortable. _She could have just pulled the medals up out of my shirt using the straps…_

Temari smirked.

"Temari, hurry up." said Gaara again.

She grimaced and seized the medals.

"Here they are," she said, taking them off his head, then tossing one to Gaara. Gaara caught it, still looking oddly at the two of them. She threw another at Kankuro, who looked up just in time to avoid getting hit in the head with it.

"We're leaving." said Gaara with finality, placing the medal around his own neck.

As the Sand brothers leapt into the trees, Temari looked back over her shoulder one last time at Shikamaru.

"Tell your brother he can let me out now." said Shikamaru, still in the Sand Coffin.

"Actually, I like you better that way." she said, and then leapt up into the trees after her siblings.

"Wha- wait!" he called, "Dammit, what the hell's that supposed to mean?"

Around ten minutes later, the sand finally went away, leaving him free to move again. He took off for the central tower. He had to say that he got his medals stolen, and then would probably be sent back into the forest to help more Genin that got in trouble.

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Shikamaru moved from tree to tree quickly, heading towards the middle tower. He usually didn't rush things but he REALLY wanted to get to the tower so he could stay and relax until the preliminaries started.

He had just leapt to a tree near to the ground when the tree suddenly started falling. He frantically tried to jump to another tree, but didn't make it, falling to the ground. Thankfully, he landed on his feet, spinning around in all directions. With all the trees, he couldn't see where the attacker's might be.

"Human Boulder!" came his former teammate's voice as Chouji came rolling at him, bouncing off the trees like a pinball. Shikamaru started running as fast as he possibly could, glancing over his shoulder every now and then. Chouji was right behind him the whole time.

Another tree fell down in front of him as he saw Sakura punch its trunk using her strength. He leapt on top of the tree as it was falling, using it to jump up into the tree beside it. Chouji came out of his spin, shouting:

"Partial Expansion Jutsu!"

An oversized arm shot at Shikamaru, destroying the branch he was on. He dodged backwards, forming his Shadow Possession Jutsu hand sign while in the air, using the extra length being airborne gave his shadow to snag Sakura and Chouji.

"Shadow Possession Jutsu, success." he smirked, "Nice try, though."

Then suddenly he lost control of his body. For the second time in an hour, he couldn't move. His signature jutsu fizzled out, allowing Sakura and Chouji to move agin. A blond haired girl dropped down in front of him.

"How do you like my new Mental Paralysis Jutsu, Shikamaru?" Ino asked.

"Very… effective…" he said, trying to move any of his limbs, but finding he couldn't. It was as if his brain's connection to them was completely cut off.

"See guys? I told you he'd be easy to take down. Now we'll just take your medals and-" Ino started.

"I don't have them." he said.

"Don't lie." she said.

"I don't."

"He couldn't have hidden them, part of the rules were that the Chuunin had to have their medals somewhere on their person." Sakura said.

Ino walked up to him and looked at his neck, then started patting the various pockets on his Chuunin vest and his pants.

"He's right. He doesn't have them." Ino said.

"Look, I already had them taken, ok? Don't be troublesome." he said.

"Taken? By who?" Ino asked.

"Uhh… Temari and her brothers." he said.

Ino's face burned with anger.

"That fan girl! I'll kill her!" she exclaimed.

"Be realistic, Ino!" Sakura protested, "All three of them are WAY out of our league. Speaking of which, Shikamaru, if you encountered them, how'd you get away alive?"

Shikamaru would have shrugged, but he couldn't under Ino's jutsu.

"Apparently Gaara lost his psycho streak. Good thing, too, since we saved him that one time and all." Shikamaru said.

"Well, at least that's some good news…" Sakura sighed.

"Now, can you _please _let me out of this jutsu? This is such a drag…" Shikamaru asked.

"You aren't going to attack us as soon as you are out?" Ino asked.

"No!" he said, "You know me, I'm too lazy to pull something like that."

"What if I don't believe you?" Ino asked.

"This is why women are so-"

"Don't even say it, Nara Shikamaru!" Ino exclaimed, "Or I'll leave you in this jutsu for a month."

"All right, all right." Shikamaru grumbled.

He felt Ino undo the jutsu and he moved his fingers a little.

"Good luck getting your medals, guys." he said, jumping into the trees.

He finally reached the tower, opening the door and heading in. Genma looked up, surprised.

"You're back already? It hasn't even been three hours!" he said.

Shikamaru shrugged.

"Don't tell me you just gave away your medals or something… it'd be just like you…"

Shikamaru shook his head, relating the tale of what happened.

Genma laughed out loud when he was done.

"What the hell is so funny?" Shikamaru asked him.

"I think," said Genma, "You have two girls crushing on you."

Shikamaru glared at him.

"Don't even joke like that, Genma."


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Guess I have to settle with being #1 fan (not really, I'm sure there are bigger fans)**

**Chapter 10**

**Team 8's Problem: Nothing to Lose!**

**Medal Count so far:**

**Sand Team: 6**

**Team 6: 3**

**Team 8: 3**

**Team 9: 3**

**Team 10: 3**

"Let's go, Akamaru! Inuzuka Rare Transformation: Double Headed Wolf!" Kiba shouted, as he and his partner transformed together into the Double Headed Wolf form.

"Don't make this hard on yourself. Just hand over the medals, we don't want to kill anyone this time around. We spared you that one time you hid in the bush." said Gaara, his arms crossed.

Kiba's response was to start spinning.

Gaara sighed. The only thing Kiba had managed to do to him in this whole battle is to have his dog pee on him a little, though he knew that was to do this attack. Still…

"Absolute Defense: Shield of Shukaku." Gaara said. A huge mound of sand in the form of Shukaku rose up. The spinning beast collided with it, and several moments passed while Kiba tried to demolish Gaara's barrier.

Ultimately, it failed, and Kiba ended up de-transforming, and he and his dog lay exhausted on the forest floor. Gaara walked over to them, scooping them up in his sand coffins.

Kiba awoke in a jolt, struggling against the sand, to no avail. Fear crossed his eyes for a second. Gaara sighed.

"Why do I have to keep telling all of you? I'm not like that anymore." said Gaara, "We're not going to kill you or your teammates. We just want these." said Gaara, pulling the medal off of Kiba's neck.

Kiba struggled some more, once again without effect.

"The sand will fall off once I get far enough away." said Gaara, jumping into the trees.

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Hinata shot chakra darts out of her hands as she ran from her pursuer.

Temari grunted. More darts? They were slightly annoying since she couldn't blow them away with her fan, but she easily dodged them as they tore into trees beside her. She swung her fan again, sending a cyclone to the retreating girl- Hinata dodged to the side as they continued their chase in the trees.

"I'm really trying not to kill her…" Temari said, "But she keeps hiding in all the trees…"

Temari bit her thumb, blood flowing from the wound as she spread it on her fan.

"Summoning: Quick Beheading Dance!" She said as she blew her fan, a fearsome scythe-bearing weasel appearing, spinning forward. Trees fell all over the place as the weasel cut through the forest. Hinata barely dodged the weasel as it soared over head, jumping to the forest floor, with Temari after her shortly.

Once more, Temari swung a cyclone… but not at the girl this time, but rather at the trees above her head. Large branches feel down towards Hinata…

Hinata stood still under the falling branches, seemingly making no effort to dodge. _Does she have a death wish? _Wondered Temari.

Then Hinata started waving her arms wildly, sending chakra darts everywhere. The darts struck every one of the falling branches, deflecting them from falling on her.

"Impressive…" thought Temari, "But it gives me the opening I need."

Just as soon as Hinata finished and the last branch was safely out of the way, Temari blew a focused cyclone at the Byakugan user. Even though Hinata saw what was happening, she couldn't make a move to dodge it in time- the wind tunnel caught her and threw her against the tree behind her. Temari moved forward as Hinata started fading consciousness, taking her medal. 

"Now time to find the others…" Temari thought.

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"I will admit, you are much harder to beat with three puppets…" Shino said. Kankurou was using Karasu and Kuroari as a deadly combination team to trap or attack him. Sanshouou was less of a problem, as the shielding puppet did little to stop Shino's bugs, who could just go around it, but Kankurou could hide in the puppet while still controlling his attackers.

"Thanks, I've been waiting for this rematch ever since I got Kuroari and Sanshouou." Kankurou said, smirking, moving his fingers a bit.

Karasu and Kuroari suddenly sprang into action, and all Shino saw was a blur as they ran around him at high speeds. He raised his hands as Karasu shot a poison bomb, which exploded into a mist of poison gas. Kankurou smiled. He beat bug-boy!

When the smoke cleared, though, that was a different story. A solid wall of bugs surrounded Shino in a dome, who emerged unscathed.

"How?" asked Kankurou.

"My bugs… they eat the poison bit by bit and break it down inside their bodies." said Shino.

"Grr…" Kankurou said, "Eat this!" 

Karasu and Kuroari, still running around Shino, all unleashed barrages of weapons that pierced Shino's body. _Too easy… _thought Kankurou, _Probably a clone…_

Sure enough, the impaled Shino burst into bugs and the real Shino came at him from behind with a Kunai. Kankurou sent Sanshouou to block while bringing back Karasu and Kuroari to attack. Karasu stabbed upwards at Shino's head with his concealed blade as Shino bent backwards to avoid the attack. However, the blade caught the edge of the chain of Shino's medal, bringing it off Shino's head.

"Heh, we'll finish this some other time. I got what I came for." said Kankurou, waving the medal as Karasu gave it to him, then he and his three puppets took off into the trees.

"Wait!" Shino called, trying to pursue, but a blast of wind interrupted him as a fan-wielding girl and her Jinchuuriki brother appeared between Shino and Kankurou. Gaara shook his head at Shino before taking off after Kankurou. Shino knew better than to pursue. While he could hold his own with the puppet master, the three of them would easily overwhelm them… he needed to find Kiba and Hinata.

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Hinata awoke with a start to find Shino and Kiba sitting around a campfire. She jerked upright, surveying their surroundings. They were still in the forest, in a clearing, with a fire going. Was that really wise?

"You woke up." Shino said.

Hinata nodded.

"I…I was attacked… by that Temari girl…" Hinata said.

"I know! That freaky Gaara guy fought me, except he didn't kill me!" Kiba exclaimed.

"It looks like we were attacked by all of them… they took our medals." Shino said.

"What does that mean? Are we disqualified?" Hinata asked.

Shino shook his head.

"No. We just have to work three times harder to get three more sets." Shino said.

"W-well… if we're going to try so hard… shouldn't we put out the fire? It's dangerous to draw attention." Hinata noted.

"No, Hinata." said Kiba, "Remember last time? We got our scroll by staying in the open and luring the enemies to a trap."

"At least, that was our plan while you recovered." said Shino, "Now, we can keep with this plan or go and look for medals. Either way. We have nothing to lose."

"We can find the hidden medals better than anybody." said Kiba, "Thanks to our individual talents, we can each search in different directions."

"Y-yes…" Hinata said, activating her Byakugan, "There's none in this area as far as my Byakugan can see, but if we spread out…"

"Ok. Meet back here after an hour, or once you find a medal." said Shino.

Then they scattered.

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An hour later they each had a medal to replace the old ones and had met back at the fire.

"Good job." Shino said.

"I looked for as many as possible, but I only found this one." said Hinata, "This is a very big forest… so they must be scattered really far."

"It's all right." said Kiba, "We can always take out other teams to get the last two sets."

"Speaking of other teams…" said Shino, "We have one eavesdropping on us now."

Kunai suddenly whizzed through the air, impaling the three of them, each of which scattered into thousands of bugs.

"Gatsuuga!" Kiba yelled as he and Akamaru spun, tearing through the branches. He exposed the three assailants, who had to jump backwards into the clearing to avoid the attack.

The three were leaf-nin that were obviously from a far older age group than Team 8. As far as Team 8 was concerned, these may as well be foreign ninja because they were complete strangers to them. They didn't know about their abilities or anything, so it would be a fair fight, in a way.

"Great. An Inuzuka and his mutt." said one as two Kiba's landed in front of him, "A Beast Clone, I assume?"

"You seem to know a lot about my clan." said one Kiba.

"But will that really help you?" the other Kiba asked.

"All right…" said the first, "Dorusake, do your thing."

"Gladly." said the one on the right, pulling a giant two-handed battleaxe off his back, "Earth Style: Stone Spire Jutsu!"

Dorusake slammed his axe into the ground, causing tremors all over. The ground in front of the Kibas split as stone spears lanced out of the ground at them, nearly impaling them. The two landed on all fours as more spires came at them, splitting them in opposite direction.

"Now, Kanzaku!" the leader said.

The remaining one pulled out two kunai with exploding tags and drew back his arm to throw them… but gasped as two darts of chakra shot through his heart. He fell over face-first, blood trickling out of his mouth.

"What the?" the leader asked, "Move! The exploding tags!"

The two jumped out of the way as the kunai Kanzaku dropped exploded, incinerating him.

"I… I didn't mean to kill him, Kiba." said Hinata, coming out of the bushes.

"It's ok, Hinata! Get back!" Kiba called, but it was too late. The leader swept down from his hiding place in a tree, grabbing Hinata and leaping to another tree, holding a kunai to Hinata's throat.

"Drop your medals now, or this girl dies!" he said.

"You should really pay better attention to who you grab next time." Hinata said, fading away into bugs.

"Curses! That Aburame is really getting on my nerves!" the leader said.

"It's all right, I'll level all the trees to find him, Satame!" Dorusake said, slamming his axe into the ground again. Stone spikes started shooting up all over the ground, sometimes piercing through the trunk of a tree, causing it to fall. Nothing seemed to happen, no scream of pain from Shino or Hinata, still in hiding. All that attack served to do was to clear out some trees and place stone spires all over the place at strange diagonal angles.

"Forgetting someone? Gatsuuga!" Kiba said, spinning at him again with Akamaru.

"Earth Style, Stone Spire Shield!" Dorusake said, as large, thick stone spires shot out of the ground in front of him, making a barrier. Kiba collided with it. Eventually, though, his attack broke against the barrier and he and Akamaru were thrown backwards.

"Akamaru!" Kiba called as the puppy ran to his hands. Kiba launched Akamaru in the air over the enemy's barrier. Akamaru started spinning, yellow-ish liquid spraying everywhere.

"Dynamic Marking!" Kiba exclaimed as some of it got on Dorusake's clothes, "It's over."

"Don't act so arrogant! I'm not going down because of that!" Dorusake yelled back.

"I'll finish this quickly, in one blow… Akamaru! Inuzuka Rare Transformation: Double Headed Wolf!"

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"Girl, why do you fight so hard?" Satame asked. His hands were glowing green as he fought hand to hand with Hinata. Hinata was trying to hit him with a Gentle Fist blow, but he kept parrying her strikes and attacking back- every five hits or so he would bring his hands together and fire a green beam which would send her flying back. Whenever she tried to shoot her Chakra darts he blocked them with the green glow.

"I… have to show how much I've improved!" she said, charging again. She shot two Chakra darts at Satame's head, who blocked with his hands. She tried to strike him low since his hands were by his head, but he somehow managed to bring his hand down to block it.

"Earth Style: Object Manipulation!" He said, the green glow on his hands shooting beams at two nearby trees. Hinata gasped as the trees uprooted themselves and started floating menacingly towards her. One swung downward at her at high speeds…

"Bug Wall!" came Shino's voice as an army of bugs stopped the strike.

"S-Shino! Where were you?" Hinata asked.

Shino held up a medal.

"I had to go find the medal of the one you killed. It flew far away in the explosion." he said.

Hinata nodded.

"Now we're ready to fight for real… I don't think you can beat both of us." said Shino to Satame.

"That's what you think!" he retorted, "We'll just have to see, won't we?"

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**Medal Count so Far:**

**Sand Team: 9**

**Team 8: 4**

**Team 6: 3**

**Team 9: 3**

**Team 10: 3**

_What will happen next time? Will Kiba's ultimate attack manage to break through the stone barrier? Will Shino and Hinata be able to defeat Satame? R&R please, and wait for tomorrow for the next update!_


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: Still don't own Naruto.**

**Chapter 11**

**Team 8's Showdown: Hinata Shines!**

**Medal Count so Far:  
Sand Team: 9**

**Team 8: 4**

**Team 6: 3**

**Team 9: 3**

**Team 10: 3**

Shino's bugs struggled silently with the tree that Satame was trying to crash down on them. Hinata watched by, paralyzed.

"Grr… Bug-boy Aburame, you are getting on my last nerve!" Satame shouted, bringing his other telekinetically levitated tree and swinging it at them horizontally. The strike caught both Hinata and Shino and sent them flying across the clearing. Shino slammed into a tree, but before he could fall down to the ground, Satame shot a beam of green after him, which hit him and began to spread. Soon, Shino was being contained in a green sphere attached to the tree.

Shino punched the sphere, then released his bugs upon it, but to no result.

"I can't get out… you have to defeat him, Hinata. That will release it." Shino said, sitting down in the green prison.

Hinata nodded. Could she do it? She hoped she could. She had to show how much she had improved, but this guy…

Satame's eyes narrowed, and he suddenly looked dangerous.

"I know about you, girl… you're the Hyuuga heiress, the one who they call a failure. Neji… yes, your cousin, he's the only Hyuuga I want to fight, he's the prodigy! You're just a nobody! This world isn't determined by family and blood, but by pure skill! I'm proof of that! I wasn't born into one of Konoha's precious clans with their Kekkai Genkai's and special clan jutsus, but I've proven that we can still be strong!" Satame exclaimed, "You, Hyuuga heiress, your kind is the epitome of what I hate."

"Y…you're wrong…" Hinata said softly, "I may have been born into the main branch, but thanks to Neji and N-Naruto… I decided to work hard, and I've invented my own style!"

Satame nodded slowly.

"All right… so you do know something of hard work after all… I know what it's like, to work so hard to invent your own jutsu, just to have people downplay it in comparison to those of a clan's, or Kekkai Genkai's! This will be a good fight between us two who have had to work hard to get where we are! Now don't hold back!" Satame exclaimed.

Hinata nodded, taking her stance. She wouldn't lose this, she told herself.

Hinata gasped as Satame swung both of his trees at her. Leaping in the nick of time, she pushed off of one of them, propelling herself towards her opponent, her hand extended for a Gentle Fist blow…

Satame, however, had other plans. After making three hand signs, he held out his hands towards the incoming Hinata.

"Satame Style: Telekinetic Blast!"

An invisible blast of Telekinetic energy shot out, hitting Hinata out of the air. She fell to the ground on her back, stunned.

"Satame Style: Telekinetic Wood Spears!" Satame shouted.

The two trees suddenly split themselves into hundreds of smaller wood spears, surrounding the fallen Hinata, and then shooting forward from all sides…

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"Double Wolf Fang!" Kiba's voice rang as the two-headed monster started spinning towards Dorusake.

"Earth Style: Stone Spire Shield!" Dorusake said, more stone spires coming out of the ground, reinforcing his barrier, making it thicker and thicker.

Kiba impacted the first set of stone spires, snapping them in a matter of seconds. Dorusake's face was dripping with sweat as he raised spire after spire in front of him to block the attack, but Kiba kept coming.

"He's snapping the stone like twigs!" Dorusake thought in amazement as his second to last layer crumbled. He couldn't raise anymore, because he had nowhere else to raise them; the last layer was just in front of him.

As the spinning tornado of death pierced through the last layer, Dorusake tried to leap aside- but he still got hit by the edge of it, sending him flying against a tree. His axe was still in the ground where it had been as Kiba came out of the spin, he and Akamaru un-transforming back to their normal selves.

"How do you like that?" Kiba asked.

Dorusake stood weakly.

"See, I figured you out." Kiba said, "While using your jutsu, you never moved once. I figured that to maintain your jutsu, you had to stand still so you could channel your chakra through something- your axe, am I right?"

"You got one part right." said Dorusake, "I can't move while using my jutsu. But it wasn't my axe…"

Dorusake's feet began to glow green.

"It was my feet! Earth Style, Spire Prison Jutsu!" he yelled.

Kiba gasped as huge spires shot up around him, leaving gaps too small for him to get through, and the top solidified over his head. Dorusake held out his arms to his axe, which floated up from the ground and shot over to him, where he caught it.

"I'll make your death swift." he said, "Earth Style, Piercing Execution!'

Spires popped out of the ground from outside the prison, shooting through the gaps and impaling Kiba.

Who exploded in a puff of smoke and turned into a log.

"What? Since when?" Dorusake exclaimed, looking around.

A shadow darted behind him, and he swung his axe at it- but he hit nothing. He turned as he heard footsteps, seeing Kiba charging at him with claws and a feral look about him, claws rending. Bringing his axe around, he smashed through the Inuzuka- only to find he had disappeared.

A sudden kick from behind sent him sprawling forward on the ground, his axe falling away from him. A Kiba appeared in front of him, punching him upward in the jaw, so he flew upwards. Then the real Kiba appeared above him.

"I can't believe I'm actually copying a move off of that idiot Naruto… but hey, if it works, why not?" Kiba said, starting to deliver punch after punch to Dorusake's chest and stomach as they began to fall towards the ground, "Kiba Inuzuka Barrage!"

When they were about ten feet above the ground, Kiba kicked Dorusake with his feet, propelling himself further in the air, where he turned and went into a Gatsuuga. The spinning attack collided with Dorusake just as he hit the ground, sending dust flying everywhere. Akamaru barked in dismay as the force of the attack sent him flying backwards into a tree.

When the dust cleared, Kiba was revealed standing beside a crater, in which an unconscious Dorusake was at the bottom. He held a medal in his hand that glinted in the sunlight.

"We did it, Akamaru!" Kiba exclaimed, his dog yipping in excitement.

"Now, let's go find the others." he said, then, "I've got to come up with another name for my new move, so it doesn't seem like I _completely _ripped off Sasuke and Naruto…"

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The spears launched at her from all sides as she stood, her Byakugan barely recognizing the fact in time. She quickly brought her arms up, hoping this would work.

"Protection of the Eight Trigrams, Sixy-Four Palms!" she said, her arms moving in a circular motion, sending out chakra darts rapidly. Each time the dart hit one of the spears it deflected it ever so slightly so that instead of launching at Hinata it fell to the ground. _But there's so many…_

Hinata willed her arms to move faster, to catch all of the projectiles before it was too late… even so, one of them got through her defense, piercing her in the shoulder.

"Impressive… but you still got hurt." Satame said, "This time I'll do three trees!"

Three more trees lifted out of the ground in the same fashion as before, with a green aura around them, the trunks breaking into wooden spears, and firing straight at Hinata.

She thrust her own arms forward rapidly, shooting darts at the projectiles as quickly as she could. For a second they were at a stalemate, then as Hinata began to tire, the stream of wooden spears began to advance towards her. Finally she got fed up of shooting them down one by one and threw a kunai with an exploding tag, jumping out of the way.

While the cover of smoke was up, Hinata ran at Satame, thrusting her arms forward for Gentle Fist. However, the enemy leaf-nin must have sensed her, because he jumped to a tree branch to the side just as Hinata was about to strike him.

"You'll have to…" Satame said, out of breath, "Do better than- ugh!"

Satame coughed blood as two Chakra darts from Hinata had pierced his heart and lung.

"I see… you really have invented your own style." Satame said, "You can fire those like projectiles, similar to the Hyuuga Gentle Fist, but not as strong. It still closes my Chakra points and causes internal damage, though." Satame coughed again.

Hinata fired more darts at the branch he was standing on, snapping it. Satame tumbled to the ground.

"Don't think I'm out just yet!" he said, "My ultimate attack: Satame Style, Telekinetic Tornado!"

Satame lifted his hands, and five trees burst into pieces, spinning around and around as Satame willed them into a deadly cyclone of debris, heading towards Hinata. She tried to run around it, and avoid it, but it kept blocking her off or following her wherever she ran.

"You see, this attack is both defensive and offensive." he said, "You won't survive if you get caught in it!"

"Th-that's what you think!" Hinata said, running forward, her hands moving, straight into the tornado.

"What? Does she have a death wish?" thought Satame, "Oh well. It's over now."

But it wasn't over. A figure sprang form the tornado of debris, right at Satame, who was too surprised to dodge.

"Gentle Fist!" she called as she struck him in the heart, releasing a huge burst of chakra. Satame's heart skipped a beat from the strike, and he fell to the ground, coughing blood.

"It's over." she said, taking his medal off his neck.

"H-how?" Satame asked.

Hinata smiled weakly. Now that he thought about it, she looked extremely battered too.

"I… I formed a kind of shield with my chakra in front of me to shield from most of the attack… even so, I still got hit from the side and back pretty hard." she said. "I wouldn't have done it… if not for Naruto…. it was like something he would have done; taking a hit in order to win."

Satame coughed again.

"This Naruto person… he seems pretty important to you."

Hinata nodded.

"Well… I'm sure he'd be proud of you today." Satame said, still coughing.

Hinata smiled back and blushed slightly, thinking of Naruto. The thought made her feel faint- or was it just the beating she took from running into the tornado?

She could hear Shino dropping down from the tree, freed as Satame grew weaker. He ran over to her and caught her as she fell, carrying her somewhere, probably back to the campsite.

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"Shino, she's awake!"

"Yip! Yip!"

"…"

Hinata passed slowly into consciousness, seeing Kiba and Akamaru's concerned faces hovering over her. She sat up quickly, looking around. Shino was sitting a ways away from the fire.

"You ok, Hinata?" Kiba asked.

"Kiba…" she murmured, "Yes, I think so. Did you win?"

Kiba laughed.

"Of course! It was easy!" he said, then seemed to grow serious. "Shino told me about your fight, Hinata. I never thought you would have been able to beat somebody that Shino couldn't. He made it quite clear who did all the work."

"…" Shino was still silent.

"O-oh…" Hinata murmured, "But, you did save me at first… right Shino?"

"I'd rather not talk about it." Shino said.

"See? Shino isn't perfect after all!" Kiba said, getting barks of agreement from Akamaru, "I was right all along! He's just embarrassed because he got stuck in that guy's trap."

Hinata felt around her neck, feeling two medals. She sighed in relief.

"Yeah… we still have to get one more set… but we have four more days. You should rest for now, Hinata."

"We'll just head towards the tower and look for medals on the way." said Shino, "It shouldn't be too hard, considering how fast we found our first set with our scouting skills."

"Ok… let's do that…" Hinata said.

"After you rest." Kiba insisted.

"Ok…"

Hinata laid back down, thinking as she began to doze. Would Naruto really have been proud of her today?

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**Medal Count So Far:  
Sand Team: 9  
Team 8: 9 (It's implied that they just go and find three more with their scouting abilities)**

**Team 6: 3**

**Team 9: 3**

**Team 10: 3**

_Next Time: I never thought I would see the day, when Neji was having trouble defeating an opponent and I, Rock Lee, the Green Beast of Konoha, would have to come to the rescue! Yosh! _

_The Power of Youth Explodes in the next chapter! R&R please!_


	12. Chapter 12

**!oturaN nwo t'nod I :remialcsiD**

**The Pairings are not the main point of the story, but in this chapter I hint at some NejiTen and LeeTen, though it won't really go anywhere in this fic as far as I'm aware.**

**Chapter 12**

**Byakugan's Bane: Meteor Lotus is Born!**

**Medal Count so Far:**

**Sand Team: 9**

**Team 8: 9**

**Team 6: 3**

**Team 9: 3**

**Team 10: 3**

"Nothing personal, Kotetsu… but we just need these medals." said Lee to the unconscious Chuunin as he held his medal in his "Nice Guy" pose.

"I thought I was done for when he summoned that huge mace…" Tenten sighed, "If it weren't for you, Neji, I'd be…"

"Then don't get careless next time." he said, walking away.

Tenten seemed to deflate visibly as she and Lee followed Neji off into the trees.

"I won't let you two down next time." Tenten said.

"Let us down? You didn't let us down." Lee replied.

"It seems like it."

"Well then, you didn't let _me _down."

Lee gave his best "Nice Guy" pose as he could while traveling.

"The Sand Team." said Neji, falling back to talk with them.

"What?" Tenten asked.

"I see the Sand Team heading towards the Tower. We could catch them unawares. Do we do it?"

"I would be willing, but…" Lee looked at Tenten.

Tenten seemed silent. She was struggling between letting her team down and good reason. She knew she would be useless, as the only one who she could possibly harm with her projectile attacks would be Kankurou.

Lee was still looking at her.

"Actually I do not think I want to." Lee said, with less gusto than ever.

Neji raised an eyebrow.

"I thought you said you were willing."

"Uhh, I just remembered about that sand guy Gaara and I don't want to anymore."

_Is this Lee? He never turns down a challenge. _Neji thought.

"All right. We keep going." he said.

Once Neji was ahead again, Tenten looked at Lee as if to say _thanks for the save._

He gave her a thumbs up in response.

A half hour later, Neji spoke up again.

"There's a Rock-nin traveling towards us a few miles ahead and to the east."

"Just one? Shouldn't we wait until they're together so we can get all three medals?" Tenten asked.

Neji shook his head.

"This guy has three medals himself."

_That means his team is strong, if they have all 9 of their medals… _Lee thought.

"So we ambush him before his teammates can come." Tenten said.

Neji nodded.

"Let's go!"

They headed to their right.

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The Rock-nin looked to be about six and a half feet tall, with bulging muscles. He seemed as solid as a rock. Just as he landed in the clearing, a green blur shot out from the bushes.

"Leaf Hurricane!"

Several kicks pummeled the ninja, who seemed about as fazed as a bear would by a bunny rabbit. Lee jumped back, somersaulting in the air, and landing, retreating back to the bushes.

"His skin!" he yelled, "It's… It's like I can't hurt him!"

The Rock-nin laughed.

"That's right! You can't hurt me!"

"Grr… Tenten!"

A rain of kunai flew out of the bushes, striking the Rock-nin with no effect.

"I see… his skin… must be some Kekkai Genkai of the Rock village, it's literally made of rock. He's practically impervious to normal Taijutsu." Neji said.

"What?" Lee asked, "But we're a Taijutsu team. How are we going to stop him?"

"My Gentle Fist should still work." Neji said.

"Quit… hiding!" The Rock-nin yelled, pointing his fists at Tenten's hiding spot, and then at Neji and Lee's.

To Team 9's amazement… his fists of rock fired off his arms, propelling at them. They barely managed to get out of the way in time. Then the fists went right back to his arms.

"Dangit… we have to beat him before his teammates come!" Tenten yelled.

The Rock-nin laughed.

"Teammates? TEAMMATES? How do you think I got my three medals, huh? I KILLED MY TEAMMATES FOR THEM!" The Rock-nin yelled.

Team 9 looked at each other, shocked. He was now even more dangerous then they had thought at first.

Tenten threw another volley of kunai, this time with explosive tags attached to them. Even with the explosions, the Rock-nin seemed to go unscathed.

"Eight Trigrams…" came a voice.

Out of the smoke exploded Neji, striking the Rock-nin everywhere in a flurry of motion with his Gentle Fist attacks, jumping up where he was too short to reach the Rock-nin's chakra points on his own.

"Two Palm! Four Palm! Eight Palm!"

"Neji really is a genius…" Tenten said, sighing.

"Sixteen Palm! Thirty-Two Palm! Sixty-Four Palm!"

"And this is the person I have committed myself to beat?" Lee asked himself.

"One-hundred-and-twenty-eight Palm!" Neji finished, giving a spin to the final blow, sending the Rock-nin spinning a few feet away and landing on the ground.

"You did it!" Tenten exclaimed.

A rock fist plowing past Neji and into Tenten contradicted her words. Tenten was hurled backwards, smashed against a tree, slumping unconscious to the ground.

"What?" Neji's eyes narrowed, his Byakugan at full power.

The Rock-nin laughed.

"Gentle Fist! Hah! I don't use chakra, you fool!" he spat.

"But… you still should have internal damage beyond repair? How!"

The Rock-nin pounded his chest proudly. A short _thump _was heard, but no reverberation, nothing that would suggest his chest was hollow.

"It's not just my skin that is rock! Even my internal organs are rock! Your pitiful Taijutsu attacks can't kill me! Now die!"

The Rock-nin covered the distance between him and Neji in two strides, punching with a powerful rock-solid fist. Neji had no time to dodge, fast as he was. His only hope was…

"Rotation!" Neji shouted as he began spinning, his chakra spinning around him in a whirlwind. Yet still the giant's punch was going through the chakra, Neji's absolute defense.

"Leaf Whirlwind!" Lee leapt up, kicking the Rock-nin in the face a few times. He grunted in annoyance and swatted at Lee with an open hand, sending Lee flying backwards, while still pushing through Neji's defense.

"He swats me away like a fly!" Lee thought.

The Rock-nin's hand penetrated Neji's defense, punching in the ground. Neji flew backwards, rolling a bit, then coming to a stop. He tried to stand but couldn't. The Rock-nin walked forward to finish the job.

"I guess I have no choice…" Lee mused, "First Gate, Release!"

"N-no…" Neji exclaimed, "Don't release all five again! Tsunade said the surgery won't work twice!

Lee's voice, now oddly distorted, replied.

"I'll… only need three to take this guy out!"

The Rock-nin noticed what Lee was doing, starting to walk towards him confidently, each stride leaving an impression in the soft earth of the forest floor.

"Second Gate, Release!"

"Run…" Neji said.

"Yes, run. You can't beat me with your weak punches and kicks!

"THIRD GATE! RELEASE!"

The Rock-nin punched at Lee with a fist, but Lee had vanished. A circle blur of green appeared around the Rock-nin, spinning faster and faster.

"What's this?" he asked, trying to punch Lee, but to no avail.

Several weak blows hit the Rock-nin from seemingly all sides at once. He grunted, amused, swinging his arm the other way that Lee was running. Instead, Lee's feet met his arm and used it to jump off of him, springing to a nearby tree branch, where he turned and faced the Rock-nin with blazing eyes.

"This is your last sight!" Lee yelled.

"Oh, really? What can you do to hurt me?

"Give up now, or you will not be alive for long!"

"You seem too soft to kill somebody!" the Rock-nin scoffed.

"We'll see about that! You hurt Neji! YOU HURT TENTEN! METEOR LOTUS!"

Lee launched off the tree with blinding speed, spinning around with his fist extended. All that could be seen was a green missile covering the span of the clearing in half a second, ramming into the Rock-nin with enough force to send him flying backwards into a tree… the force broke through the tree, and the next, and the next, snapping through the trees as still Lee propelled them both onward.

A crack appeared in the Rock-nin's chest where Lee's fist was.

"Im-impossible!" he gasped.

Ahead of them, a particularly strong-looking tree appeared, its trunk fifty feet wide, too thick to break through. The two collided with the trunk violently, the impact from both sides causing the cracks in the Rock-nin to spread, all the way across his chest, spreading over him like spider-webs.

The Rock-nin screamed as his middle split into many pieces.

Lee collapsed to the ground, exhausted, his vision fading. Opening three gates wasn't like when he opened five… he would be fine after a rest, assuming enemy ninja didn't kill him while he was unconscious…

With that, Lee's world faded to black.

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**An overall short chapter, but I like it nonetheless. You will be seeing Meteor Lotus again. It's kind of a last-resort move like Reverse Lotus except one that he can do without tearing all his muscles… anyway, that's the end of this chapter.**

**Medal Count So Far:**

**Sand Team: 9**

**Team 8: 9**

**Team 9: 9**

**Team 6: 3**

**Team 10: 3**

_Next time: I want to help them, I really do- who could stand by and watch two girls get beat up? But Raigar, being the arrogant idiot he is, wants to wait until those Rain-nins beat them and then take out the weakened team… but I won't stand by! I won't!_

_Next Time: Confrontation: The Swordman's Son!_


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: Me no own Naruto…**

**Apology: The reason I didn't update for the past three days was because Monday was my birthday, and we went out to eat on Sunday. Anyway, I'm back on track now.**

**Chapter 13**

**A Team in Need: The Exams Get Complicated!**

**Medal Count So Far**

**Sand Team: 9**

**Team 8: 9**

**Team 9: 9**

**Team 6: 3**

**Team 10: 3**

"Tamaru, slow down!" Raigar snapped.

"Why? It's the fourth day and we still haven't found ANY medals!" he called back to them, "We've got to get some before the fifth day!"

"Calm down! We won't be in any shape to get any if we don't take time to rest." Rasha protested, "We're all worn out. Let's just take an hour nap."

"…Fine. But I'll take watch, you guys sleep." Tamaru replied.

They dropped down into a clearing. Rasha lay down immediately and Raigar went to go find wood for a fire. Tamaru stared into the darkness. _I won't fail, _he decided, _I won't. I definitely will pass this exam, even if I don't become a Chuunin. For Hayate. I have to prove myself._

He thought back to the times in his life that were _good. _Times with the three of them, working on missions together. And, last year… Tamaru had been angry at Hayate for not recommending them for the Chuunin exams, yes, but he didn't want him to die… sometimes he felt like it was his fault, as punishment for being so ungrateful, but now he knew better. Instead he just decided to hate the one who killed him. Of coruse he had been vehemently opposed to allying with the Sand, but what influence could a mere Genin hold? No, they had to ally with the Sand, and worst of all, it was that Sand Team and their leader, Baki, that came to their village most of the time.

Of course Tamaru knew what really happened that night. He even knew, by connecting a few dots and doing a little researching, who killed him. Yes, he knew it was Baki. He had even approached Baki about it, with threats and the like, before Baki suggested that he should go back home. It was as if he wasn't even sorry for killing Hayate; that's what bothered Tamaru the most. He had rushed them then- but Gaara's sand had stopped him, carried him about two blocks away, and by the time he got back they were long gone.

Team 6 really _was _cursed. Who would be next? Himself? He wouldn't mind; that'd only mean reuniting with his father figure Hayate. Raigar? He hated to admit it, especially not to Raigar, but he was still Tamaru's teammate, his friend. He wouldn't appreciate it if he died. And Rasha? Well, he _really _didn't want Rasha to die- she had too much to live for. She and Raigar had clan, had _family- _who would miss him if he died? The only one who would truly care was already dead, killed by some Sand bastard who he couldn't kill because of some stupid peace agreement.

Not that he could kill him anyway.

Which was possibly what Tamaru hated most about the whole situation. He was just a Genin. He had no influence, he would be helpless in combat with the Sand Jounin, and no matter how much he protested his cries that the alliance with the Sand would end up turning out for the worse, he could do nothing. _That Baki just walked into our village, killed my teacher, walked out, and then they just go ahead and make a peace treaty with fake pleasantries and smiles?_

His ears registered sounds as he went to wake Rasha and Raigar. The hour was almost up anyway, they may as well get going; and he didn't like those sounds of combat drawing steadily drawing nearer to them.

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_5 minutes ago…_

Team 10 stood in the clearing; glaring at the familiar faces of the Mist-nin.

"Heh. I'll take the blonde like last time." said the mottled-brown haired Mist-nin, Kyban, "It won't take long if she's as pathetic as last time."

Ino fumed silently.

"Remember what your father said, Karken…" the girl, Ryuna, told the man with the arm blades, who chuckled.

"Well Daddy isn't here, is he? Still, I made a promise- I won't kill anyone. This time." Karken laughed again, an eerie sound that echoed through the Forest of Death.

"That's all I ask. Your father would get mad at _us _if you went berserk, and I don't want to die at the point of your father's sword." Ryuna said.

"Well, are we doing this or not?" Chouji asked.

"Yeah, come on, _fatso!" _Ryuna exclaimed.

Sakura and Ino barely caught hold of Chouji's scarf to hold him back as he tried to run at the girl.

"Let me at her! Let me at her!" he protested.

"Trust me, I want to get at them too." Sakura said, "But you gotta remember last time. The girl uses Genjutsu, and I think the guy uses some kind of ice power. I don't know about that Karken guy, but I'd be willing to bet he cast that mist that covered the area that last time we fought them."

Karken laughed.

"Well, girl, you look like you're the brains of the group. Got us all figured out, have you?" he asked.

Kyban grinned as well.

"Oh, trust me, you haven't seen anything yet."

"Like the _fatso _said, are we going to do this or not?" Ryuna asked.

Team 10's answer was for Sakura and Ino to let go of Chouji's scarf. Chouji charged at the girl like a rampaging bull.

"Human Boulder!"

And proceeded to roll at her like a bowling ball.

"This is gonna be fun…" Ryuna smiled.

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"What do we do?" asked Tamaru, "Do we help the Leaf team?"

"Back away slowly while they're preoccupied?" offered Rasha.

"No!" Raigar whispered harshly, "Don't you see? This is our chance! There are two teams! If we wait for one of them to win, we can take the winners on since they'll be weakened, and get all our 9 medals!"

"What? No! I can't just stand by and watch the fellow Leaf team be decimated." Tamaru argued.

"What would you rather do? You don't even know the Mist team will win for sure. What if the Mist team wins?" Raigar asked.

"Then we'd have to fight the Leaf team!" Tamaru protested.

"So? There's nothing wrong with a little friendly competition." Raigar shrugged.

"Come on," Rasha hissed, "We all know that you'd kill your own girlfriend without hesitation if she was your opponent."

Raigar shrugged.

"It's the ninja way. We don't owe anything to them. We graduated a year before them, so we didn't even get to know them."

"Just keep thinking like that, Raigar, but in the meantime I'm going to go help them out." Tamaru replied, leaping out of their bush cover into the clearing.

"Tamaru! Dang, if this goes badly, I am going to _murder _him!" Raigar swore.

"Well, nothing we can do now but fight our best…" Rasha said as they stepped out as well.

The Akamichi was just finishing missing the girl Mist-nin, then coming around for another shot.

"Hmm? What's this now? More Leaf-nin?" Karken asked.

Sakura and Ino turned, surprised at Team 6's appearance.

"They're popping up like cockroaches!" Karken laughed.

Ino's face darkened.

"Last time a team said that to us, we showed them!" Ino said.

"Err… Sasuke showed them, actually." Sakura commented.

"Whatever, we've improved since the fight with the Sound-nin last year. We can take them this time!"

Sakura glanced back at the three of them.

"Well, are you guys going to help, or not?" she asked.

Raigar crossed his arms.

"Apparently we're still deciding that." he said.

"Ignore that loser, I'm helping!" Tamaru exclaimed.

"We don't need their help, Sakura!" Ino protested.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I guess we'll just go on our way then, which is what I wanted to do in the first place." Raigar said sarcastically.

Tamaru glared at him.

"Ino… we _could _use their help…" Sakura said softly.

"Well, what could _they _possibly do?" Ino scoffed.

Rasha's eyes flashed green for a few seconds.

"We're in luck." She said, "That Mist team has 6 medals. Which means that if we defeat them together, we can split it evenly."

"Did you just-" Ino gaped.

"Read their mind?" Rasha smiled, "Yeah, pretty much."

"Heh, that's like YOU could defeat US!" Karken laughed, "We have 6 medals for a reason, and we'll enjoy taking 6 more!"

That was the final straw. 6 ninja vanished into the trees, leaving only Chouji, Ryuna, and Rasha alone in the clearing.

"Chouji, your frontal attacks won't be too effective against this girl." said Rasha, her hazel eyes taking a green ring around them.

"How'd you-" Chouji started.

"Mind reader, remember?" Rasha smiled, "This Ryuna person is a long range Genjutsu user."

"Sakura already told me." Chouji said, "But I won't be tricked by any lame Genjutsu!"

"No, I'm sure you won't." Rasha rolled her eyes, "But just in case, because my Seigan sees through Genjutsus easily, I'll be able to dispel any Genjutsus used on you or me."

Ryuna blinked.

"Seigan? You're a _Seigan _user?" she said, disbelieving.

Rasha grinned evilly.

"Ooooh yes. Which means all of your Genjutsus are useless. As I believe you just said a moment ago? _This is going to be fun…"_

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"So you say he uses some sort of ice power?" Raigar asked.

"Well, yes, that's what Sakura said." Ino explained.

Raigar's eyes narrowed.

"Interesting…"

Following Kyban right on his heels, the three of them were exchanging projectile exchanges. Kyban would reach back and fire a barrage of kunai-sized projectiles that looked like icicles, which the two of them would counter with their own kunai.

Finally they reached a clearing that was far away from the first one, where they stopped.

"Heh. You're at a disadvantage now. I've led you to a nice… open… area…" Kyban deliberately paused during the last three words, "You're doomed?"

Raigar smiled.

"Are we?" he asked.

"Oh yes, you are. I'll kill you first, and do it quickly." he pointed at Raigar, then at Ino, "As for you, blondie, I think I'll play with you a bit and throw you away once you break."

Ino glared a death glare at him as she caught his meaning.

"Let's. Kill. Him!" she cried, punctuating every word.

Raigar sighed.

"Hell hath no fury…" he said, then threw a few kunai at Kyban.

"Oh come ON! You think that will beat me?" Kyban raised both of his hands, icicles appearing at his fingertips, then they shot out at the kunai, countering them in air; then more kept coming at Raigar and Ino.

_"He's freezing the water from the air," _thought Raigar, _"But that means I can…"_

Raigar held up his right hand.

"Fire Style: Fire Burst!" he exclaimed, a rush of flames bursting out from his palm, dissolving the tiny icicles, then dispersing.

"Heh. Did you really mean to hit me with that short-range attack?" Kyban scoffed.

"No, not really." Raigar smiled, "I meant to do this!"

Kyban felt a tap on his shoulder as he spun, seeing a hand floating in the air next to him. The hand curled into a fist, punching him soundly across the cheek, sending him flying to the edge of the clearing.

Ino looked at the hand floating in the air, to Raigar waving his single hand at the Mist-nin, then blanched.

"Ew! That is so weird!" she thought.

Kyban stood to his feet, watching as Raigar massaged the wrist of his left hand as it reattached to his arm.

"All right, so you caught me off guard." he spat blood, "You just got lucky! You haven't seen the beginning of what I can do!"

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Karken stood in the clearing, arms crossed.

"Well? Are we going to fight or what?" he asked.

Some rustling of leaves was heard as he whirled around in time to glimpse a pink-haired girl leaping at him. He jumped backwards as the girl slammed her fist into the ground, making a huge round crater.

Karken gaped in open amazement, then laughed.

"Why does he laugh at everything…" Sakura groaned.

"I think this might be fun after all!" Karken did a few hand signs, then suddenly a thick mist was covering the area.

"You can't hit me if you can't see me!" his voice echoed from all around her but she couldn't pinpoint his location.

A few moments passed in silence.

Then she heard a step behind her- too quick to react!

"Secret Homicide!" Karken exclaimed, stabbing at her from behind.

Metal clanged together, and there was a figure holding two katanas standing in between Karken and Sakura, blocking the blows with his katanas. Karken smiled, leaping back into the mist. Tamaru spun his katanas back into their sheaths, drawing his Giant Shuriken.

"Let me get rid of this fog for you." Tamaru said, starting to spin his weapon expertly. The Giant Shuriken acted as a fan, blowing away the mist around them until it faded completely, revealing Karken standing a few feet to their right.

"I see! So this WILL be some fun after all!" he exclaimed, laughing.

Tamaru exchanged his Giant Shuriken for his two Katanas again.

"I think I can fight off his arm blades using my katanas. You keep out of danger and look for a chance to strike with that punch of yours." Tamaru said.

"Ok." Sakura said, leaping into the bushes, leaving just Tamaru and Karken staring each other down.

"You fool!" Karken spat, "You think you can take me alone? The two of you wouldn't be able to beat me! Do you know who I am?"

Tamaru smiled.

"The next person for me to beat?"

Karken scowled.

"You will pay for your insolence. For I am the son of one of the great Seven Swordsman of the Mist!" he cried.

Tamaru blinked.

"Who are they again?" he asked.

Karken scowled even more.

"First you mock me, and now you don't even know the most famous weapon masters in history! Oh, you will pay. I am going to rip you to shreds!" Karken didn't laugh.

"The only weapon masters I know are myself," Tamaru replied, "And my mentor and father figure, Hayate Gekkou! If you claim you and your Seven Swordsman people are the true weapon masters, I'll consider it a challenge to Hayate's honor, and mine! Now I won't lose to you no matter what, because you've insulted us both!"

"Well, you also have insulted me and my father!" Karken shot back, "No more talk! Let's do this!"

Then he charged.

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**Medal Count so Far:**

**Sand Team: 9**

**Team 8: 9**

**Team 9: 9**

**Mist Team: 6**

**Team 6: 3**

**Team 10: 3**

_The battle continues, and these people mean business! They aren't like any normal Genin I've ever seen! But it doesn't matter! She called me fatso, so she has to pay!_

_Next time: Battle on Three Fronts: The Leaf-Nin Alliance!_

_R&R Please!_


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: I still do not own Naruto, BUT I own the 16 OC's and the plot, along with quite a few of the original moves such as Lee's Meteor Lotus. Also, I own the idea of Shikamaru's test and the medal test for the Chuunin Exams.**

**Apology: Sorry, due to extenuating circumstances I couldn't do the real Battle on Three Fronts: The Leaf-nin Alliance! today. So instead you get this. Sorry.**

**Chapter 14**

**Shikamaru's Thoughts: Life at the Tower**

**Medal Count So Far:**

**Sand Team: 9**

**Team 8: 9**

**Team 9: 9**

**Mist Team: 6**

**Team 6: 3**

**Team 10: 3**

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"It's nearing the end of the fourth day…" Genma sighed.

Shikamaru sat in the sofa across from Genma, with the other Chuunin who had been beaten in between. Kotetsu and Izumo were the ones who he knew well; Kotetsu had been taken down by Team 9 and Izumo viciously ambushed by the Cloud Team. So far, only five teams had made it back from the forest with their medals: Team 8, Team 9, the Sand Genin Team, the Cloud Team that beat Izumo with their eccentric leader, and the strange Rock Team that was led by that creepy guy who was rumored to be a Jinchuuriki.

Shikamaru had hid ever since the Sand Team got back, which was pretty quickly. After beating Team 8, they headed straight back to the tower, nobody daring to attack them- they got back around an hour after Shikamaru did. Temari was looking for him to gloat, but he promptly avoided her. Which was incredibly difficult to do for three days straight, but he made sure to stay two steps ahead of her at all times.

Then Izumo returned, beaten by the Cloud Team. Not long after that, Kotetsu showed up.

"That Hyuuga's really something." Kotetsu complained when he got there, "He closed all my chakra points with that 64 palms attack. I still can't quite mold my chakra correctly."

Shortly after that, Teams 8 and 9 arrived almost back to back, Team 8 immediately trying to pick a fight with the Sand Team. Well, specifically, Kiba did. He was pretty ticked off that the Sand Team attacked them. It ended up with Gaara asking him "Would you have preferred I kill you?" to get Kiba to shut up. And this was just on the second day.

The third day, a battered-looking Rock Team arrived. Well, correction. Two battered Rock-nins arrived. The third, the one rumored to be the Jinchuuriki, was completely unharmed, much in the fashion that Gaara was last Chuunin Exam. He got mad at the other two for "holding him back", then stormed off somewhere. As Shikamaru was watching the scene unfold, he almost got caught by Temari. She would have snuck up on him if her brother Kankuro hadn't told her dinner was ready at the last possible moment.

Genma was saying that since there was only fifteen so far, there might be no need for preliminaries. It was up to Tsunade of course, but he was thinking that seven matches wasn't too bad… Genma never really liked the idea of having preliminaries because the teams were at varying strengths… teams like the Sand Team had been relaxing here for days while other teams that arrived today or tomorrow would be worn out and battered. He didn't think it was very fair to then pit them against each other without giving them time to rest… but he admitted that there wasn't really a good way around it.

Shikamaru couldn't cloud watch during all this time. The tower had no good place to look at the sky, and he couldn't go outside because the forest made a canopy that blocked out all view of the clouds. Instead, he resorted just to sleeping… and trying to dodge that troublesome woman Temari. Seriously, what did she want anyway? He assumed it was to gloat about catching him so easily in the forest, but…

He thought of Team 10, wondering how they were doing out there. He hoped they would make it through. They deserved it. Really, they deserved to be made Chuunin more than he did- he was just lazy. A genius perhaps, but he didn't want to be made into a Chuunin in the first place- it was too much work. And yet Tsunade seemed fully intent on loading him with all sorts of work, for no apparent reason other than he hated it. But his old teammates and Sakura- they were working hard to earn it. They deserved it more than he did. Heck, they actually wanted it. If he could, he'd gladly give his Chuunin-ship to them. But he couldn't.

_Come on, guys. _he thought, _You can make it. I believe in you._

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**Medal Count So Far:**

**Sand Team: 9**

**Team 8: 9**

**Team 9: 9**

**Mist Team: 6**

**Team 6: 3**

**Team 10: 3**

The real Battle on Three Fronts: The Leaf-nin Alliance! will come tomorrow, I promise.


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer: No, I don't own Naruto, thank you very much.**

**Chapter 15**

**Battle on Three Fronts: The Leaf-nin Alliance!**

**(For real this time!)**

**Medal Count So Far:**

**Sand Team: 9**

**Cloud Team: 9**

**Rock Team: 9**

**Team 8: 9**

**Team 9: 9**

**Mist Team: 6**

**Team 6: 3**

**Team 10:3**

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"Fire Style: Fire Burst!"

The flames roared through the clearing, dissolving the incoming icicles before they could reach the two leaf-nin.

"It's taking more and more chakra for me to keep this up!" Raigar hollered, "What are you doing?"

The blonde kunoichi was busy making a box with her fingers and trying to get Kyban in its sights.

"I just need one clear shot, and it's over!" Ino said, "But he keeps moving!"

"No, really? He's a ninja, of course he's moving! Can't you do anything else?"

"Well, can't you stop him for two seconds?"

Kyban laughed.

"Seeing you two argue like an old married couple sure is funny," he said, "But I've got places to go, people to kill, and you're in my way!"

More icicles shot from Kyban's fingertips, countered by Raigar's flame attack again. Except this time, the icicles kept coming, forcing Ino and Raigar to dodge.

"I'm telling you, he keeps shooting more icicles each time! I can't stop them all anymore! We're going to have to come up with something else!" Raigar yelled.

"And I'm saying I am trying to do something else but you have to get him to stand still first!"

"Fine! Lightning Style: Lightning Burst!" Raigar exclaimed.

One of Raigar's hands rose up from the bushes behind Kyban, shooting a blast of lightning energy.

"Ice Shield!" Kyban held his hands out at the advancing bolts, ice forming out of thin air instantaneously, forming a thick barrier of solid ice, blocking the attack.

"That is so annoying…" Raigar commented.

"This isn't good." Ino thought, "Raigar's using up chakra fast, I can't use my mind techniques, and we can't even touch this guy!"

"I'm tired of playing with you. It's time to finish this!" Kyban raised his hand up in the air. Ice crystals began to gather in his palm, elongating more and more, growing into a single monstrous projectile.

"Holy-" Ino started.

"Less admiring, more moving!" Raigar said as he shoved her towards the trees.

"Ice Style: Gigantic Ice Spear!" Kyban laughed.

And then he threw it.

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"I don't care if my genjutsu won't work, I'm still no pushover!" Ryuna exclaimed, "Water Style: School of Minnows!"

A ball of water coalesced in front of her, bursting into hundreds of little tiny darts of water, each assuming the form of a minnow.

"Human Boulder!"

Chouji rolled into the torrent, deflecting the pieces of water, fighting the stream to a standstill.

"Chouji? Chouji!" Rasha yelled as the minnows that Chouji deflected to the sides came around his rolling form, lancing at her.

"That's right!" Ryuna exclaimed, "You can't escape my minnows, I'm controlling them with my chakra! You're done for!"

The minnows shot forward at Rasha as she was dodging, exploding on impact, sending her flying back into a tree behind her. But it wasn't Rasha; the fallen Rasha exploded in a puff of smoke, revealing a log.

"Do you really think I'm that weak? You keep forgetting, I'm reading your mind. I knew what your jutsu did the moment you thought to use it in your head." Rasha's voice came from behind Ryuna as she threw some kunai with exploding tags at Ryuna, who redirected her water onslaught at the new attack. However; by countering Rasha's attack, she allowed Chouji to roll forward. That mistake almost cost Ryuna her life; even still, she was unable to dodge Chouji entirely. The rolling attack sent her flying across the clearing, landing in a heap on the other side.

"Partial Multi-size jutsu! Arm!" Chouji formed a fist as his arm and hand expanded to a ridiculous size over Ryuna.

"Give us your medals now, or I'll squash you!" Chouji said.

"You should have done that when you had the chance!" she shot back. Chouji's eyes widened as he slammed his fist down- but it was too late. Ryuna dove out of the way, rolling to her feet, forming handseals.

"Water Style: Great Vortex Jutsu!"

"Oh, dear…" Rasha yelled, "Chouji! Expand now!"

_Too late… _Rasha thought, as ridiculous amounts of water appeared from seemingly nowhere, shooting at them in a deadly vortex.

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Tamaru gawked as the form of Karken vanished.

"What? How can he be that fast? He's almost as fast as that Lee kid who graduated with us!" Tamaru gasped.

He barely managed to block Karken's arm blades as they sliced for his neck, the two pushing against each other in a vicious weapon lock; the pressure faded as fast as it had come as Tamaru heard the noise of a leaf crunching behind him. He reflexively spun around to meet the Mist-nin's blades with his own.

"He's so fast!" Tamaru's mind was reeling, "Too fast for me to combat effectively!"

A sudden impact left a crater where Tamaru and Karken had been standing as Sakura leapt out from the trees behind them, aiming at Karken. She missed both, however, leaving a crater in the middle of the field. Tamaru ran next to Sakura, facing down Karken on the other side of the crater. They stared at each other like that for a while, each glaring as if the venomous stares could somehow kill the opponent.

"Sakura?" Tamaru asked.

"Yes?"

"We might have a problem."

"What's that?"

"It's raining." Tamaru pointed up.

And indeed it was raining, pouring but not like any rain either of them had ever seen. For one, the forest of Death had a canopy that would stop this much rain, even in the heaviest of storms. For two, the rain was moving in odd patterns- first blowing one way, then the other. Second, the rain seemed to be dark- almost black, really. The craters Sakura had created started to fill up with water as the downpour became heavier.

"This isn't like normal rain." Sakura noticed it too.

"Genjutsu?" Tamaru offered.

"No…"

Karken laughed.

"No petty jutsu could be like this! This is my bloodline! My Kekkai Genkai, Demon Rain!" he laughed, "I can create a rainstorm anywhere, at any time, which is mine to command! You're done for now!"

Tamaru grimaced.

"We'll just see about that." he said.

"Look! The two craters you made are already filling up! Do you want a demonstration of what I can do?" Karken laughed, his hands forming a blur of practiced hand signs.

"Water Style: Water Tentacles Jutsu!" he said, touching the edge of the pool of water.

A ripple spread throughout the crater, then suddenly, arms of water shot out. They moved about like sentient beings, grappling towards Tamaru and Sakura as they dodged and fled, avoiding the tentacles at all costs. Karken stood, laughing, as the rainstorm thickened some more and he was hidden from view.

"We can't keep this up much longer, Sakura!" Tamaru yelled.

"What! I can't hear you!" and indeed, the rain was getting so loud now it was even obscuring their voices.

"I said, WE CAN'T KEEP THIS UP MUCH LONGER! WE'VE GOT TO COME UP WITH SOMETHING ELSE!"

Tamaru slashed through one of the tentacles trying to grab him and pull him under, but the part he severed just fell to the ground with a splat while the tentacle regrew itself. Sakura was a little more successful by throwing an exploding tag at it, sending water spraying everywhere- the tentacle still regrew, but it took longer. Tamaru slashed through three tentacles at once that were trying to grab him from all sides, spinning around to sever the deadly arms.

"I'LL KEEP THESE ARMS OFF OUR BACKS, YOU FIGURE OUT A WAY TO STOP THEM!" Tamaru yelled, throwing both of his katanas, glowing with the glow of his chakra as he controlled the spinning blades to sever the tentacles. He took the remaining two katana off his back, throwing them as well, sending four spinning blades of death through the air, continuously chopping the water arms so that they could never fully regrow. In the meantime, he took out his Giant Shuriken, keeping an eye out for Karken if he tried to attack either of them.

Meanwhile, Sakura was searching her brain for some way to stop the tentacles. The obvious solution was to keep up what Tamaru was doing, but she knew he couldn't keep doing that forever. She always figured that between the brute force Tsunade had taught her and her natural brain, she could conquer any problem she faced. But this seemed like a quandary. The jutsu in itself was not that much of a threat, but Karken's rain could always thwart her in some way or another… and she wasn't even sure how much that his ability could do.

Oh well. She had come up with something, may as well try it.

Jumping to the edge of the pool of water, she punched the surface with all the force she could muster, sending the force straight downward into the natural curve of the crater. At first the pool just began to roil, but then the water found a way out- up. The water splashed everywhere, overflowing from its banks, splashing all over the area, emptying the pool in one stroke and nullifying Karken's deadly jutsu.

Meanwhile she was still working on the problem of the rain. Karken was using it to hide like the mist from before, but Tamaru couldn't blow it away like before. Karken could attack them at his liking as the pool of water refilled, or… there were endless possibilities.

Sakura's throat tightened as she realized she wasn't thinking of any good ways out.

"Sakura!" Tamaru cried.

Then she realized that that wasn't why her throat had tightened at all. Her throat had tightened because there was now a hand grabbing it as the rain coalesced into Karken's hand, then arm, and then his full body. He grinned as his hand tightened on Sakura.

"You see," he said, "I'm not just hiding in my rain. I can travel through it!"

"You… you bastard!" Tamaru yelled from behind him, slicing at him with his Giant Shuriken.

The Shuriken passed through nothing as the entire middle section of Karken dissolved into water, then reformed after the Shuriken passed harmlessly through.

"Well, that was useless." Karken said.

Tamaru smiled.

"That's where you're wrong." he said.

Karken's eyes widened as four katanas zoomed at him from all sides. He twisted and turned, trying to dissolve his body in time. He dodged well, managing to avoid three- but the fourth slashed him in the side while passing. He vanished and appeared several feet from them, holding his side. The rain curtain stopped.

Tamaru and Sakura grinned triumphantly at him.

"Fine, take your medals." Karken hissed, tossing them to the two Leaf-nin, who caught them promptly, "But don't think you've seen the last of me!"

Then he vanished.

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"Expansion Jutsu!" Chouji expanded to a round size, floating on top of the current that swept Rasha up.

"Human Boulder!" Aagain, Chouji started spinning, except this time he sent water spraying everywhere as he tried to find ground to get traction on. There was too much water; he was just spinning like a pinwheel, not actually doing anything. Chouji reluctantly deflated himself, seeing as how it wasn't doing any good.

"Partial Expansion Jutsu! Arm!" Chouji expanded his arms, grabbing the trunk of a sturdy-looking tree, while expanding his other arm further down the newly made miniature river. After a few minutes of fishing around with his expanded hand, he found Rasha, pulling her up and over to him. She gasped, coughing up water.

"Thanks." she murmured, "Now let's finish this."

"How?" asked Chouji.

She whispered and he smiled.

"That's crazy enough to work." he said.

Ryuna kept pumping out water to sweep the two away as Chouji grabbed onto two trees for dear life, Rasha on his back.

"He thinks he can hold on for much longer? We'll see about that." she said, pushing more force.

The current pushed Chouji a dozen or so feet back, his arms stretching to their limits.

"Just a little more!" Ryuna exclaimed, pushing the last of her chakra into the water blast. It pushed Chouji even farther back until she felt sure he was going to be swept away.

"NOW!" Rasha shouted.

At first Ryuna didn't understand what happened, but suddenly there was an overweight leaf-nin hurtling at her at insane speeds. What happened was a rubber band effect- Chouji had stretched out his arms to the maximum, then instantly released his jutsu, snapping his arms back to normal size. This flung him- and Rasha on his back- towards Ryuna at the insanely high speeds rivaling that of a cannonball. Ryuna dove out of the way of the chubby as he plowed into the trees behind her, but not before Rasha leapt off of his back with a kunai, flipping once in the air, coming down on Ryuna, putting a kunai to her throat.

"Operation: Human Cannonball, success." Rasha said, smiling.

"All right, you win." Ryuna groaned as Rasha removed her medals, tossing one to Chouji, "Now let me go."

"I think I'll leave you knocked out for a while. Chouji, you want to do the honors?" Rasha asked.

Chouji walked over to Ryuna, cracking his knuckles.

"She called me fatso." he said, "She's got to pay the price."

Ryuna gulped as her world went black.

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"Ice Style: Gigantic Ice Spear!" Kyban shouted, wielding a ridiculously huge icicle.

And then he threw it.

"Go!" Raigar shouted as they dove out of the way of the projectile.

The two managed to escape direct impact, but upon impacting the ground, it shattered into thousands of little icicles that sharpened them everywhere, skewering them in multiple places. Kyban laughed. He had won! There was no way they could survive this attack!

And then the two Leaf-nin just… disappeared.

Kyban blinked, his mind disbelieving. One second they were there, being skewered by his attack- and then the next, they were just gone.

"What's going on here?" he gasped.

"Mind Paralysis Jutsu!" came a female voice from behind him as he was hit behind by Ino's spiritual essence.

His mind was racing as Ino began to take over his body, all screaming the same thought: _how, how, how how HOW?_

Raigar smiled as Ino's body collapsed in his arms.

"Nice thinking." he said.

"It wasn't hard." she said from his body, "While he was standing still gathering that oversized icicle I just cast a basic mind confusion jutsu that made him see us standing still there while he used his attack, letting us get behind him."

"Well, nice thinking anyway." Raigar said.

"Can I trust you to get my body back to Chouji and Sakura once I knock this guy out?" Ino from Kyban's body asked.

Raigar nodded. Ino tossed him the two medals, one which he hung around her neck to prove he was going through with the bargain.

"All right." she said, picking up a large piece of wood, "Good night!"

Then she smacked herself (in Kyban's body that is) with the piece of wood. Kyban's body fell backwards, unconscious, as Raigar took back off for the clearing they had started off in, carrying Ino.

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Soon Team 6 and Team 10 were back in the main clearing, talking and laughing over their recent victories.

"I hate to spoil the party, but we pretty much have one day and each of us still has to get another set." Raigar said.

The others sighed.

"You're right." said Sakura, "We should get going while we can, I guess. All the other teams will be near the tower at this point, so we should start heading that way for now…"

"Well, that was fun while it lasted." said Tamaru.

"Good luck on getting the rest of your medals!" said an Ino with a bloody nose from knocking herself out (remember, damage to the body Ino's in gets inflicted on herself too).

"See ya'll at the tower!" Rasha called.

"BYE!" Chouji bellowed as the two teams took off into the trees.

"You think we can do it?" Raigar asked as Team 6 sailed on their way.

"We better," said Tamaru, "Or all of that we just did will have been all in vain."

"We will." Rasha assured them, "I'm sure of it."

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**Medal Count So Far:**

**Sand Team: 9**

**Rock Team: 9**

**Cloud Team: 9**

**Team 8: 9**

**Team 9: 9**

**Team 6: 6**

**Team 10: 6**

**Mist Team: 0**

_Next Time: The start of the preliminaries! Anything can happen! But most of us are rested and ready to go! Well… most of us. Team 6 and Team 10 are pretty worn out, but compared to that team that just burst in the door at the last second- who are these guys, anyway? And can this guy stand up to his claim and really beat Neji? Neji better not be beaten- I still need to fight him in our grand duel of youth! _


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer: I do not not not not not not not not not not not not not own Naruto.**

**Shoutout of a Different Sort: Three cheers for Moonwaterpetal, who gave a great anti-flame speech.**

**Chapter 16**

**Everybody Here? Not Quite! The Preliminaries Start!**

**Medal Count So Far:**

**Sand Team: 9  
Cloud Team: 9**

**Rock Team: 9**

**Team 8: 9**

**Team 9: 9**

**Team 6: 6 **

**Team 10: 6**

**Mist Team: 0**

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"Say all that again?" Shikamaru wasn't sure he was hearing it right.

Raigar sighed.

"Shikamaru, we've told you twice already." he said.

"Look, we helped them beat up a Mist-team. We each needed one more set, so we split up to go look for more teams to beat. I'm sure they're fine, they did as much in the battles against that Mist-team as we did. They're determined, too. They'll make it." Rasha assured the worried Chuunin.

Tamaru was strangely silent.

"All right… So they should be on their way here." Shikamaru said.

"Well, we aren't sure… we got lucky, we found a careless Waterfall-nin team that was just begging to be ambushed." said Rasha, "They could be having a lot more trouble finding another team… among other things. But they'll make it eventually, I'm sure."

Shikamaru sighed.

"All right… so long as they make it eventually." he said, standing to leave, "Make sure you eat and rest up. Now that there's 18 of you, we're going to have preliminaries for sure…"

"Wait, 18? So 5 other teams made it other than us." Tamaru finally spoke.

Shikamaru nodded.

"Wow…" Tamaru shook his head. He seemed to be coming to terms with something.

"All right…" Shikamaru left, closing the door.

"Have some fruit." Raigar threw a cluster of grapes at Tamaru as soon as the door was shut. Tamaru caught it, staring at it blankly.

"What the heck?" he asked.

"They're called grapes, moron." Raigar said.

"And you throw them at people? Are they like smokebombs?"

Rasha started giggling. Tamaru threw the grapes back at Raigar, who caught them, picking one off, then tossing it in his mouth.

"You eat them." Raigar said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Oh." Tamaru said, sitting back down. He tossed a Shuriken in the air, controlling it with his chakra, sending it flying one way across the room, then to the other, then doing figure 8's in the air, and other such things.

"Can you stop that?" Rasha asked.

"Why?"

"We're supposed to rest and relax. You shouldn't be burning chakra like that."

"Rest and relax?"

"And eat." Raigar added.

"Oh. Well you guys go ahead." Tamaru said, catching the Shuriken, "Doing this really doesn't take much chakra at all. It's more of a nervous habit."

"Well, don't do it then." Rasha said, irritated.

Tamaru flicked his wrist, sending the Shuriken headed at her. She didn't have her Seigan on at the moment, so she was taken totally by surprise as the projectile hurled at her, stopping several inches from her face. Tamaru recalled the Shuriken, catching it and spinning it on his finger.

"Tamaru!" Raigar said sternly.

"What's going on? You're never this on edge." Rasha added.

"Or rude."

"Especially to me."

Tamaru shrugged.

"Going a little stir-crazy, I guess." he said.

"That answer's not going to cut it!" Raigar said, "You just need to calm down, rest, relax, and eat!"

"Calm down? You're the one who's shouting." Tamaru shot back.

"Quiet, both of you!" Rasha exclaimed, "We need to rest to be at our best for the preliminaries. So take a grape."

She picks one off and throws it to Tamaru. Raigar sat down, eventually starting to doze, while Rasha helped herself to the fruit bowl in the middle.

"So you eat it, you say?" Tamaru asked.

"Yeah, just like any other fruit." she replied.

"Oh." He stuck the grape back into the fruit bowl.

"You aren't going to eat it?"

"No."

"Are you going to sleep?" 

"No."

"Tamaru! You've got to do something to rest for the preliminaries!"

He shrugged.

"You kept taking watch in the forest, you didn't sleep at all!"

He shrugged again.

"Tamaru, that can't be healthy…" she murmured.

"I'm fine." he said.

"Well at least eat then." she said.

"I don't eat." he replied.

Her eyes widened.

"What?"

"I don't eat. Have you ever seen me eat?"

"No… but you have to eat." she said, surprised.

"Well, I don't. I'm fine." he said.

"I'm just concerned for you, that's all…" Rasha said.

"Thanks, but I'm fine really." Tamaru insisted.

Rasha sighed, exasperated, picking up another cluster of grapes.

"Fine, have it your way. Just don't blame me if you lose in the preliminaries, ok? "

"I would never blame you for anything." he replied.

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"So, it's almost time… just one more hour left until midnight…" Genma said to the Chuunin, "Go get all the teams and have them meet in the main arena area." He then started to issue directions of which team each Chuunin should go to.

"And Shikamaru, that leaves you with the Sand Team."

Shikamaru groaned. Did all of his superiors have some conspiracy against him?

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The kunai flew into the Sand Team's room, embedding itself in the wooden floor, wobbling.

"What the heck?" Kankuro asked, stopping to pick it up, "Oh. They want us down in the main room."

"Shikamaru…" Temari whispered.

Gaara raised an eyebrow.

"The coward." Temari growled, "He's the only one who wouldn't deliver it to us personally."

"Hmm, I wonder why that would be?" Kankuro asked sarcastically.

"Shut it." Temari hissed.

Kankuro raised his hands defensively.

"Sorry, sorry." he moved to grab his three summoning scrolls from the side of the room, "Shall we be going, then?"

Temari smiled evilly.

"Yeah. One thing he forgets, is that he has to be there too."

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The eighteen of them stood together in the main room with the statue (the fighting place), looking around at each other. Shikamaru had placed himself as far as possible from Temari while looking worriedly at the door. _Are they going to make it? _he wondered.

Team 8 was glaring at the Sand Team and Rock Team. The Sand Team had taken thief first set of medals, after all, and the Rock Team had attacked them in the village… Team 9 gawked at the presence of the Cloud Team, especially Neji.

"Are they for real?" Tenten asked.

Neji groaned.

"Those jokers actually made it…" he muttered.

"Ahem, attention everyone." Hayate called over the clamor and talking going on all around him, "There's only an hour left, and I doubt anyone else is coming. If they do, they'll be accommodated, but for now I'm going to tell you what's going to happen. As many of you here no doubt know, we're going to hold a preliminary exam to eliminate at least half of the competitors, to single out the best for the guests coming from all over the continent. Also, with less matches the tournament can progress quicker. Therefore, we are going to hold some preliminaries tomorrow morning, starting at 8:00, for this purpose."

Most of the people were unsurprised. They knew well about the preliminaries and workings of the Chuunin exams.

"So… Now I have to ask this… if anyone is uncertain or afraid at all, now is the time to withdraw."

Nobody raised their hand.

"Good… so with 18 of you, there will be 9 matches, and-"

And the door burst open, revealing three figures, one carrying another. Shikamaru's face visibly brightened.

"Told you they'd make it." said Rasha to Shikamaru.

"What'd we miss?" Sakura asked.

Team 10 walked in, Chouji carrying Ino. Genma frowned.

"With 21 the matches won't be even…" he muttered, "But if she's out then she can be-"

"She isn't." Chouji said sharply, "It's her jutsu, it sends her mind out for a time, but she's coming back."

"Yeah, she'll be in fighting condition." Sakura assured.

"But we still can't have an odd number of competitors!" Genma protested, "And nobody here wants to give up."

"Well neither do we, and we got through the test, same as they did." Sakura replied.

Genma sighed.

"Uhh, we can use the random name selector to select somebody to get a free pass to the next round." Shikamaru said, "Just a suggestion."

Genma shook his head.

"No. Nobody's getting by free, that would be cheating the spectators. And forcing someone to fight two battles would be unfair to that person. There's just no way to do an odd number and keep it fair." Genma replied.

"Well, I don't think it's fair to just disqualify them either." Tamaru spoke up.

"Maybe not, but what will we do?" Genma asked.

Nobody had another suggestion.

"Wait here." Genma said to all the Genin, "Chuunins come with me, we're going to have a meeting."

Genma, Shikamaru, and the other Chuunins left, Shikamaru looking back at Team 10, concerned, before following.

The others murmured a little, waiting impatiently. Ino returned to her body, smiling at first, but groaning in annoyance when they explained the situation. Of course they should be allowed to enter, Ino said. She just didn't know what they should do as a solution. But Team 10 had worked hard, and they deserved to compete, she said, and naturally, Sakura and Chouji agreed. Team 6 was in support of them as well, having fought by their side. The other teams didn't seem to care particularly one way or another, wanting to go back up to their rooms and sleep before the battle.

It was beginning to near midnight.

Then the Chuunins, led by Genma, walked out of the side room. Genma sighed.

"Because of the nature of the preliminary matches, an odd number of contestants does not work out well." Genma said, "We currently have a difficult situation on our hands. So, I ask again, if there is ANYBODY who feels scared, nervous, or even uncertain about competing, please leave now. You can die or get seriously hurt in these things you know. Last year, there was a Genin who almost had to quit being a ninja."

"And he is standing here right now." Lee said, irritated.

"You're not helping my point." Genma said back, "So please, I'll ask again. Does anybody want to quit now, for any reason at all?"

Nobody raised their hands.

"Then you leave me no choice." Genma sighed, "I am sorry, Team 10, but I cannot allow you to com-"

The door burst open for the second time in the night, interrupting Genma mid-sentence. A figure with arm blades held the door open, panting for two companions, a girl and a boy, to catch up. The light glinted off the headband, revealing the Mist logo.

"Heh." said the boy, stepping around the one with the arm-blades, "Miss me, Blondie?"

Ino screamed.

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**Final Medal Count (in other words, the teams that made it)**

**Sand Team: 9**

**Rock Team: 9**

**Cloud Team: 9**

**Team 6: 9**

**Team 8: 9**

**Team 9: 9**

**Team 10: 9**

**Mist Team: 9**

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_Hi, Dark Eclipse here talking. I know I said last time that the preliminaries would start today and such… but I thought that the Mist-team bursting in was such a good ending I just left it like that. There's not much left to say though, so, next time…_

_Hyuuga's Bane?: The Preliminaries' Explosive Start!_


	17. Chapter 17

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

**Chapter 17's finally here. YAY! I've just been busy lately that's all…**

**Chapter 17**

**Byakugan's Bane? The Preliminaries Begin!**

A weary looking figure with arm blades trust the door open, looking exhausted. A girl stood behind him and another boy stepped around him, into the light, smiling at the other 21 Genin.

"Miss me, blondie?" Kyban asked.

Ino screamed.

"What the-?"

"We beat you!"

"How are you here?"

"Are you three here for another beating?"

A barrage of outbursts from Teams 6 and 10 (minus Tamaru and Ino that is)

Karken smiled.

"Did you really think that minor setback would put us out for good? No, after that humiliation at your hands, we just have to have our revenge!" Karken laughed.

"Why do you ALWAYS have to laugh every time you say something?" Sakura asked.

"Maybe we wouldn't laugh if you six weren't so laughable!" Ryuna stepped into the room as well.

Genma was examining his watch.

"Laughable? Well I guess since we beat you, that makes you three more laughable!" Raigar shot back.

"Yeah, but you had to buddy up to take us down. If you weren't so cowardly, we would have defeated you easily!" Kyban replied.

"What the heck is going on here…?" Neji murmured.

Shikamaru meandered over to him.

"That's the Mist Team that Team 6 and Team 10 had to ally to beat last night. Apparently, they managed to get nine medals in one day." he said.

Neji raised an eyebrow.

"Nine in a day? That's pretty impressive."

Shikamaru nodded.

Genma cleared his throat, reclaiming everyone's attention.

"11:59." he said, "At least it was when they arrived. That means that they made it in time, and we can include both them and Team 10 now."

Sakura was at once angered and relieved at this declaration. On the good side, they were allowed in. On the bad side, so were those Mist Genin.

Kyban smiled.

"Hmm… I think our appearance got that team of incompetents in too. Guess you better thank me, eh blondie?"

"In your dreams!" Ino exclaimed in a disgusted tone.

"You're welcome." Kyban replied.

"Now go get some sleep! Whoever isn't here by 8:00 sharp is going to be disqualified, and I figure you all will want rest." Genma said, "So go!"

The Genin grumbled off as they went to the stairs on opposite sides of the arena, climbing up the tower to their rooms.

"Twenty-four." Shikamaru said, "We're having a tournament with twenty-four people."

Genma shrugged.

"It'll be at least down to twelve for the real tournament."

"Still, this is more than we've ever had."

"I guess we have a talented crop this year."

Shikamaru chuckled.

"Half of them were the same crop as last year."

Genma shrugged again.

"So? It took me way more than one try to get my Chuunin ranking. You are one of the very, very few that got it on your first shot. You should be grateful."

Shikamaru scoffed.

"Cheh, being a Chuunin is just WAY too troublesome."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I'm using the bathroom for the next hour or so, you boys stay out!" Rasha slammed the door in Raigar and Tamaru's faces.

"What's up with her?" Tamaru asked.

"Probably just mad she didn't get to go home. I mean, I'm kinda annoyed too- last year they didn't give any rest to those Genin, so I guess I should be grateful that we're getting 8 hours of it… but still, why wouldn't they let us go home?" Raigar asked.

"We might not get out. Or back in." Tamaru said.

"Oh, the forest? True… I guess the tower is in the middle of the forest, by the time we got out and back in we'd be more tired than we started."

"It's better this way." Tamaru assured.

Silence.

"Anyway, we can't be the only team with this problem. Every team has at least one girl." Tamaru said.

"…not the Rock Team."

"Whatever. The point is, we can't be the only team having this problem."

"Rasha just isn't used to sharing… living conditions… with boys. She only has sisters, I think."

"No, no, she's an only child."

"I've met one of her sisters though!" Raigar protested.

Tamaru looked confused.

"Who?"

"Rayla."

"…oh. That was her sister? I wouldn't ever have guessed." Tamaru answered.

Another silence.

"Are you actually going to sleep tonight?" Raigar asked.

Tamaru nodded.

"Good."

"I do sleep. I just don't eat." Tamaru explained.

"What? Of course you eat."

"No I don't. Have you ever seen me eat?"

"Well… no… but… are you anorexic or something then?"

Tamaru shook his head.

"Then how can you not eat?"

"I just don't."

"I'm going to find out when you eat sometime." Raigar said.

"Go ahead and try."

"Oh I will. Someday, I will."

"Well, good luck." Tamaru chuckled.

Another silence.

"Let's get some sleep… I don't think we're getting the bathroom back until morning, so we may as well rest now and try to wake up before Rasha." Raigar said.

Tamaru nodded and rolled over, closed his eyes, and was instantly asleep.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"You really think twenty-four is going to be all right?" Shikamaru asked.

Genma looked at him oddly.

"Why are you being so… well… troublesome right now?"

Shikamaru shrugged. He didn't like having his own word turned back on him.

"I'm just concerned that's all. Have you contacted Tsunade yet?"

"No… but what do you suggest we do?" Genma asked.

"I don't know… maybe hold a double round preliminary or something?"

Genma shook his head.

"No, six is too few. Seriously, what is up with you right now? You don't usually care this much about anything."

Shikamaru shrugged again.

"I'm going to bed."

Genma smiled.

"That's more like the lazy Shikamaru I know."

Shikamaru left without comment.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The next day, the Genin came down one by one, starting with the Sand Team. Gaara had insomnia and never slept, so it wasn't a surprise that he came an hour before the match- but it seemed like he had dragged Temari and Kankurou down with him. It was unlikely that they came of their own free will. Or maybe they did, just to make sure Gaara didn't try anything. The "New Gaara" may have seemed to be doing well, but they had to make sure he didn't kill anyone. Just in case. You can never be too safe, right?

Next came Tsunade herself, along with all the Jounin instructors and a few of her own.

Each of the senseis' greeted their team in various ways, the most conspicuous of which was Gai.

"YOSH! My extraordinary team of youth!" he exploded, running up to a clearly disturbed Tenten and Neji and exuberant Lee.

"Gai-sensei! I made it through, just like I promised!"

"That's great, Lee!"

"All thanks to your great training, Gai-sensei!"

"No! It was all your work that brought you through, Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

The two embraced and a beach with a sunset appeared behind them. Those who had not seen or experienced this before gawked in amazement at the landscape appearing seemingly from nowhere. Tamaru and Raigar shook their heads at the display, and Rasha was still trying to see how the sunset and all that appeared. The other teams kept their reactions to themselves (Temari probably would have been weirded out, but she was busy trying to catch the eye of a certain lazy ninja sitting with Tsunade, Shizune, Genma, etc.)

(Author's Note: I haven't been using very much of the Japanese suffixes, but I just can't go without Lee calling Gai Gai-sensei. Also, I couldn't leave the fic without a Gai/Lee scene moment. It's classic.)

"Hey, you three. Glad you made it." A particular masked Jounin appeared behind Team 6 in a swirl of leaves, intently reading his book.

"Hi, Kakashi." Raigar said.

"Hey." Tamaru added.

Rasha looked too stunned at the moment to answer at all. Her Seigan was on, her eyes shifting from the cover of the book to Kakashi's face, then back again. Then, abruptly, she turned around away from Kakashi, arms crossed.

"What's up with her?" Raigar asked.

"Something in the fruit?" suggested Tamaru.

Rasha buried her face in her hands.

"There are times I wish I wasn't a mind-reader…" she whispered.

Raigar and Tamaru glanced at each other, confused.

Kakashi let out a small chuckle, but resumed normal composure quickly, stowing the book away.

"What's going on here?" Tamaru asked.

"Beats me…" Raigar answered.

"Is that… _thing _put away yet?" Rasha asked.

The tone of her voice was enough to make even Kakashi cringe underneath his mask.

"Uhh… yeah." he said.

She turned around, smiling pleasantly.

"I'm so glad we don't have a pervert for a sensei."

Raigar and Tamaru looked at each other again, confused. Kakashi seemed to be the only one to catch the sarcastic comment, so well it was concealed in a seemingly pleasant and respectful voice.

"Umm… I think the round is starting." he said.

Indeed, Genma walked into the middle of the hall, looking at the twenty-four Genin before him.

"Anyway… it's 8:00 now, glad to see you all made it ok. So… without further delay… Shizune?"

"Right, right." she said, hitting a button on a remote she had. A tv screen slid down from the side of the hall.

"The pairings will be randomly chosen by the computer. Once the competitors are chosen… the rest of you go ahead and move upstairs to the balcony to watch the match. We have medic-nin standing by, and Tsunade herself has chosen to honor us by watching the matches." Genma said, "Please try to act properly, and use proper sportsmanship."

Shikamaru stared lazily at the ceiling. Proper sportsmanship? Since when had that ever happened? He highly doubted it was going to start now.

The names on the screen began whirring with a continuous electronic noise. The various people stared at it intently, expressing anxiety in various ways.

Then it stopped, the shining yellow letters taking form.

**Kyban Yataro**

**vs.**

**Hyuuga Neji**

"Heh. And who would that idiot be?" Kyban said.

Neji scowled at the derision in his opponent's voice.

"'That idiot' happens to be the number one rookie two years ago, AND the Hyuuga prodigy." Tenten said.

"AND my eternal rival!" Lee added.

Tenten shot him a glare to say _you aren't helping any._

Lee stepped back.

"And I suggest you surrender now." Neji said, "The Hyuugas are honorable. I never go easy on any of my opponents."

To everyone's surprise Kyban laughed.

"Hey, Karken! I think this guy really is as blind as he looks!"

Neji's eyebrow twitched, but it was Tenten who spoke.

"Blind? BLIND! Neji's eyes are better than yours could ever hope to be!"

"I hope you aren't as dumb as you sound." Neji retorted.

"We just told you, he is the number one rookie two years ago, and also the Hyuuga prodigy."

Kyban still ignored them.

"Hey Karken! I've always wanted to test my mettle against the famous Konoha Hyuuga clan!"

"…just don't lose." was Karken's response.

Kyban scoffed.

"Lose? I'll have this match over in two minutes, tops."

"No way. Nuh-uh. If anything, you won't even last two minutes." Tenten said.

"Can you please stop arguing?" Genma cut in.

"Hyuuga Neji, just so you know, YOU should be the one surrendering." Kyban smiled slightly, then whispered, "My jutsu make me the worst possible opponent for you."

Neji said nothing in response.

"Everyone move up to the balcony." Genma ordered. The Genin complied, Tenten and Lee looking for a moment like they were going to pounce on Kyban.

"Can he really hold up to his claim?" Tenten wondered aloud as they walked up the stairs.

"No. Not a chance. This is NEJI we are talking about." Lee said, "At least, Neji better not lose. He's my eternal rival, so the only one he can lose to is ME."

Tenten scoffed at much at Lee's claim as at Kyban's.

"All right, since everyone's moved upstairs now…" Said Genma, "BEGIN!"

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…And the preliminaries are OFF AND RUNNING!

Sorry again it took me so long, everyone, but I should be pretty good now. I think. I hope. Anyway, I haven't given up or anything stupid like that… just so you know, I'm still at it. R&R please!


	18. Chapter 18

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

**C2: If anyone has or knows of a C2 Community that I could join, I would appreciate it very much if you told me. Thanks in advance.**

**Chapter 18**

**White Eye, White Ice**

"BEGIN!" Genma exclaimed, moving out of the way of the two competitors, one of which was already speeding at the other for a full-powered Jyuuken.

"I'll just go ahead and end this… quickly!" Neji said.

Kyban smiled, holding out his hands. Ice began materializing in front of him instantaneously, forming a barrier as Neji thrust his palm forward. He struck the ice with his Jyuuken, thrusting the chakra at it… only to find that nothing happened. Kyban made another motion with his hands and ice spikes shot from the barrier towards his hand, forcing Neji to retreat a safe distance away.

"Heh. Now you see why I'm the worst possible opponent for you." Kyban said.

"Byakugan!" Neji activated his Kekkei Genkai.

"What the…? It's like his ice is chakra resistant! That's why I couldn't thrust my chakra through it with my Jyuuken!"

"You never did tell us how the battle against this guy went…" Tamaru said to Raigar.

"Yes, well… his ice… it blocks chakra except for fire style, so most of my ninjutsu attacks were useless against it. One would need either a fire style attack or plain Taijutsu to get past it."

"But isn't he using Taijutsu?"

"No." Kakashi answered, "The Hyuugas use the Jyuuken, or gentle fist, which uses chakra surges to hit the opponent's chakra points. In other words…"

"The attack is based around sending out chakra… Which the ice blocks." Raigar finished.

"Hmm… I know how good Neji was, since we graduated in the same class. I know how much of a prodigy he is. But this… that Mist guy might actually be able to hold up his claim." Tamaru said.

"It looks like it could be a possibility… but don't rule out Neji just yet. If there's one thing he learned from Naruto before he left, it's to never give up." Kakashi said.

"Give it up, it's pointless!" Kyban laughed as Neji tried to hit him yet again from a different angle.

"Ice Style: Icicle Barrage!" Kyban shot out hundreds of little icicles at Neji, forcing him once more to retreat.

"Those icicles… each one is as deadly as a senbon, or kunai." he realized with his Byakugan.

"Yep, that's right! You won't last another minute! Ice Style: Stalactite Rain!" Kyban raised one hand towards the ceiling, where stalactites were growing out of the ceiling at his behest. Neji saw as they finished growing, then propelled towards him from all angles above him…

"Rotation!" Neji began to spin, his chakra forming a protective sphere around him as the projectiles tried to push through his defense. They failed.

"I don't care what his ice does, but when it comes to the ultimate defense against projectiles, Neji's got it." Tenten smiled.

"Then they can't touch each other?" Lee asked.

"No… I'm sure Neji will find away around that ice. But the Mist-nin can't do anything against the rotation."

"Stalactite Rain!"

Again Kyban shot a shower of large icicles from above, and again Neji deflected it by rotating.

"You're tiring out." Kyban said simply.

When Neji came out of his spin, he was breathing hard, but stood straight up. He wouldn't give Kyban the satisfaction of seeing he was tired.

"Only after two rotations? How disappointing. You're already running out of chakra, while I have plenty to spare. Stalactite Rain!"

"I see now… that Mist-nin… he was going easy on us in the forest!" Ino realized.

"Yeah… we beat him because he underestimated us… he probably could have killed us if he was really trying…" Raigar answered.

"What's Neji going to do? Surely he can't keep rotating at this rate, or he'll run out of chakra." Tamaru asked Kakashi.

"Don't count him out just yet." he said again.

"8 Trigrams: 128 Palms!"

"What?" Lee gasped. He did not know his eternal rival could do that.

Tenten grinned a little.

"He told me about his match with the spider freak. It was like this match; he couldn't keep using rotation because it was wasting too much chakra, so using this technique he took the projectiles one by one." she said.

"Amazing…" Lee gasped.

All that anyone saw of Neji was a blur as the ice projectiles were deflected in all manner of different directions, much to Kyban's annoyance.

"Why won't you die! Stalactite Rain!" he added more icicles to the barrage, all of which were promptly deflected by Neji.

"It's going to take more than that to defeat Neji." Tenten declared.

"Amazing…" Rasha said.

"He might even be moving faster than me." Lee agreed.

Tamaru was uncharacteristically silent for the second time in the past two days.

"Grr… try deflecting this! Ice Style: Gigantic Ice Spear!" Kyban held up his hands, gathering all the ice he could muster into one gigantic spear.

"He's lowered his guard to use that attack…" Kakashi murmured.

"So now he's using THAT attack." Ino noted in recognition.

"Kakashi's right, Neji should attack now. That's what we did." Raigar said.

Neji seemed to come to this realization a moment after Raigar said it, rushing forward at Kyban.

"It's too late for that now!" Kyban slammed the unfinished spear on the ground as Neji approached him. The gigantic icicle shattered into hundreds of little icicles, shooting outwards at Neji. Neji jumped backwards to avoid them, but was too late… Dozens of icicles punctured him in various places as he landed, falling to his knees. Blood seeped out from the wounds as the icicles mysteriously melted.

"Now take this! Ice Style: Ice Prison!" Kyban pointed to where Neji was standing, where the shards of the broken stalactites lay. The shards began to form together, joined by new ice, as they spread upwards around Neji to entrap him. Neji leapt upwards to escape the trap, but it looked like he wouldn't make it… the prison was expanding too fast.

"Air Palm!" he thrust his hand at the ground, sending a current of air downwards at the ground, using it to propel him higher and safely outside the range of the ice prison. Kyban growled in frustration.

"That's new." Tenten said, blinking. She didn't think Neji had any moves that he hadn't shown her. But apparently he did.

"Just what I would expect from my eternal rival!" Lee shouted.

"Would you cut out the eternal rival crap?" Tenten replied.

Gai was trying to catch Kakashi's eye, but he was too busy watching the match.

"Why does he have to act so cool…" Gai groaned.

"Ice Style: Blizzard Jutsu!" Kyban shoved his hands forward towards Neji, a shower of icicles shooting at him. Neji got up and tried to meander forward through all the icicles, but there were too many; he ended up getting pushed back with more wounds than he had to start with. Kyban let out a laugh.

"Pitiful. For a Hyuuga prodigy, you are a complete failure." Kyban chuckled.

Neji stood again.

"That's what I said… last year… to Naruto…"

Kyban raised an eyebrow.

"And I lost because of it!"

Neji charged again.

"Again? Whatever. I'm getting tired of this. Ice Style: Ice Encampment Wall!"

Kyban held out his hands, the air seeming to shimmer in front of him. Then crystals of ice began to appear, connecting themselves to each other, all across the room from one wall to another. Soon enough, there was a solid wall of ice stretching all the way across the room, all the way from the floor to ceiling, cutting off any way to get at Kyban. Even though it could not be heard, it was clear Kyban was laughing as Neji looked at the new obstacle in front of him.

"How the heck am I supposed to get past that?" Neji wondered.

Karken raised an eyebrow up on the balcony.

"It looks like Kyban isn't as loyal as he would like us to think." he said.

"Yeah… that attack looks like it was designed to counter your jutsus…" Ryuna noted.

"So he's been planning against us all along… I knew he couldn't be trusted."\

Kiba gasped.

"It's… huge… I'm not sure even my Double Wolf Fang could break it…"

Neji was just as confounded by the gigantic barrier.

"Ice Style: Blizzard Jutsu!" they saw Kyban mouth, forming a few hand signs, then touching the ice wall. Icicles shot out from the wall itself, pummeling Neji again, who raised his arms to protect his face.

"NEJI!" Tenten screamed. She couldn't believe it. This was Neji they were talking about; how could he be losing?

Lee and Gai were dumbstruck.

"Why won't you die?" Kyban screamed silently as Neji stood again, "Ice Style: Giant Ice Knight!"

Kyban touched the wall again, and a mass of ice emerged from it, connected by a smaller tendril of ice. The mass turned into a huge knight made of ice, with a sword and shield. It swung at Neji, who didn't have time to get out of the way, batting him to the other side of the room. He stood again, panting and groaning, bleeding from multiple places. The Knight took three ponderous steps towards him and stopped, waiting for him to charge again.

"The Knight can only go so far because he has to be connected to the ice wall…" Neji thought, looking at the tube of ice between the Knight and the wall, "Maybe… but I can't break the ice…"

Neji fell to one knee, looking at his opponent and his giant Knight.

"If this keeps up, Genma's going to have to call the match…" Kakashi noted.

"No! You can do it, Neji!" Lee called.

"Don't give up!" Tenten added.

"YOSH! SHOW THEM THE POWER OF YOUR YOUTH!"

Neji glanced up in annoyance at his sensei. _Don't you think I'm trying my best? _he wanted to shout back.

If Kyban's barriers absorbed his Jyuuken, it was probably safe to say that the Knight did as well; it was made of the same ice. So he had no way to get around Kyban's barrier, no way to defeat the Knight, no way to do anything but get pummeled some more by the Knight. He was already bettered enough as is. Was this it? Was he at his end already? No! Naruto would never give up no matter what, so Neji couldn't either. He would find a way.

He clenched his fists in silent fury.

Wait… he clenched his fists?

Then something clicked.

xxxFlashback from Chapter 4xxx

"_Neji, what I'm about to teach you is originally one of my own and Lee's move. I think it would come in handy for you, and with your superb chakra control, you should be able to master it easily." Gai said._

_Neji nodded respectfully, but didn't look too impressed. What could Gai teach him that would help a Hyuuga? Not that Gai wasn't powerful, but… the Hyuuga style was the Hyuuga style, and couldn't be mixed with anything else. What need did he have for brute force attacks?_

"_This attack," said Gai, "Is not in Gentle Fist style."_

_Neji knew that already. Gai and Lee didn't do anything in Gentle Fist style anyway._

"_It should only be used to attack if your foe has put up a barrier or some sort, or if you're destroying an obstacle in your way. Close your fist." Gai instructed._

_Neji sighed, closing his fists. His Hyuuga Gentle Fist stance just didn't feel right with closed fists, so he awkwardly held his fists in front of him, like a boxing fighter._

"_It's simple enough to learn. Focus as much chakra as you can at one time to your fist, like so." Gai said._

_Gai's fist began to radiate blue, and it looked like he was wearing a glove made of chakra._

"_Then, when you're at your limit and feel like you can't hold it anymore… PUNCH!" Gai exclaimed, striking a nearby tree. He took a large portion out of the side of the trunk, enough so that the weight was lopsided and came down with a crash._

_Neji sighed. Such a brute force attack was not his style, but he'd learn it anyway. Why not, right?_

xxxEnd Flashbackxxx

Neji's eyes widened.

"That's it!" he thought.

_Focus my chakra to my fist…_

Neji directed as much chakra as he could to his fists, which began to glow blue like it had when Gai had demonstrated the attack.

"All right… it's now or never!" he exclaimed, running forward.

"Hah, what can you possibly do? You're beat." Kyban laughed, making a swinging motion with his hand, which made the Knight swing his sword at Neji. Neji avoided the attack, leaping up onto the Knight's sword, using it to launch into the air.

"What? He shouldn't even be standing, let alone be able to dodge like that!" Kyban gasped.

The other ninja were watching intently, none moreso than Tsunade herself. She was on the edge of her seat. Gai was simply smiling.

Neji flew over the Knight, crashing down on the ice tendril connecting the Knight to the wall, using his left hand to attack, shattering the connection. As it shattered, the Knight stumbled for a bit, then fell down the ground, exploding in shards of melting ice. Neji pushed even more chakra into his right hand as he approached the wall. Kyban shot more icicles at him as he grew closer and closer- but Neji warded all the projectiles off with his fist.

"DYNAMIC FIST!" Gai shouted out as Neji struck the giant wall.

For a second nothing happened. Then a crack appeared where Neji had struck. Then the cracks spread all throughout the wall. With a clamorous crash, the entire wall splintered into trillions of little ice shards and fell to the ground, leaving a defenseless and wide-eyed Kyban standing in front of an approaching Neji. Said Hyuuga unclenched his fists, reverting back to normal Hyuuga style, zoomed up to Kyban before he could shield himself again, and started striking chakra points.

"8 Trigrams: 64 Palms!" Neji exclaimed as he finished striking all of Kyban's chakra points. Kyban slumped to the ground, chakra-less, his shards of broken ice melting into nothing as medical examiners rushed in to check him.

Genma smiled.

"Winner: Hyuuga Neji." he declared.

Neji smiled.

"I knew he wouldn't lose!" Tenten shouted out to the world.

"Just what I would expect from my eternal rival!"

"YOSH! He used it! He used it! He used the move I taught him!" Gai was exclaiming up on the balcony. Neji was feeling a detached from the experience, his wounds throbbing in pain. He felt a little dizzy and faint at the moment. A medic-nin came up to him after they ascertained that Kyban would be all right.

"Do you need treatment?" the medic-nin asked.

Neji swallowed his pride for the moment, for he was in no condition to argue. He nodded.

"I would appreciate that."

As they ushered Neji out to get treated, the other nin commented, mostly in amazement, on the young Hyuuga prodigy. Tsunade simply smiled as she motioned for Shizune to start the next random selection.

The letters whirred as the ninja watched silently.

**Subaku no Temari**

**VS.**

**Kataro Raigar**

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_Whew… the Neji/Kyban fight is done! Yeah! That's probably one of the longest and hardest fights to do, if not THE hardest._

_Next Time: Raigar, you better not lose on me! What's so great about this fan girl anyway? (pun fully intended) It doesn't matter. I expect to see you in the finals, Raigar, so I can beat you myself. You better not lose. And what's that Rock-nin's problem? Heck, he scares me just by thinking about him. Oh well. I feel sorry for that girl that's facing him though…_

_Read and Review please!_


	19. Chapter 19

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

**C2: Again, if anyone knows of or has a C2 that this story would fit in, I would appreciate being added.**

**Updates: I won't give any excuse or anything like that, because I know that's not what you all want. You don't want excuses, you want results. And results you'll get.**

In Memory of Deidara: Now let's all take a moment of silence to honor everyone's favorite clay-user, Deidara.

**Chapter 19**

**Wind and Rock: A New Threat!**

Genma smiled.

"Winner: Hyuuga Neji." he declared.

Neji smiled…

…As they ushered Neji out to get treated, the other nin commented, mostly in amazement, on the young Hyuuga prodigy. Tsunade simply smiled as she motioned for Shizune to start the next random selection.

The letters whirred as the ninja watched silently.

**Subaku no Temari**

**VS.**

**Kataro Raigar**

Raigar frowned.

"I didn't think I'd have to go this soon…" he commented.

"It's all right, just don't lose!" Tamaru exclaimed.

"…easy for you to say." he said testily.

"What? You better not lose! You gotta make it past the preliminaries, at least, so I can beat you!" Tamaru said.

"Trust me, I don't _want _to lose, but…"

"Confidence, Raigar! Have confidence!"

"Tamaru, do you even know who my opponent is?" Raigar asked.

"No, but you better win!"

Raigar shook his head.

"…whatever…"

Raigar leapt down into the arena to meet the already waiting Temari.

"He's of the Kataro clan… watch out for the hands…" Gaara's voice whispered in her ear as a wisp of sand brushed by her, then returned to Gaara.

Temari frowned. Kataro's. She wasn't familiar with them… watch out for the hands?

Shikamaru looked at the two, hoping that if Raigar managed to beat Temari, she wouldn't take it out on him.

"Begin." Genma said, stepping back.

"Forfeit now." She snapped, trying to appear formidable, "I'm not playing around with any of that three moons stuff this time around."

Raigar raised an eyebrow, but the others- minus Team 6 and the foreign teams, of course- remembered. Tenten remembered more perhaps more than she wanted to, wincing slightly. Last time Temari had given her three free attacks, and she still couldn't touch her, no matter what she threw. And then, Temari had taken her out in one attack. It was really embarrassing, not to mention painful.

"We're trying not to kill anyone this time." Temari said, "Don't make this harder than it has to be."

Temari was still unsure about what Gaara's message meant, and as she unfurled her fan, she studied her opponent. He didn't look particularly strong or anything. She felt sure that she could take him, whatever it was that he did, but her uneasiness led her to try to intimidate him into forfeiting anyway.

Raigar shook his head.

"I'm not forfeiting." he said, though he didn't sound particularly determined or anything.

"Then die!"

Temari whipped up her fan, blowing a cyclone of chakra-controlled wind at Raigar, who formed three hand seals before thrusting one of his palms forward.

"Wind Style: Wind Burst!"

A blast of wind emitted from Raigar's right hand, countering Temari's cyclone. The two wind attacks collided, finding that they were equal in strength. Instead of dissipating, though, the two attacks found other ways to go- namely, to the sides. A strong gust from the attacks whipped throughout the other competitors on the balcony, blowing them first one way, then another. Many of the competitors had to raise an arm to shield their eyes or grab the rails to keep their balance.

Temari frowned.

"He countered my jutsu so easily… and I don't have another method of attacking…" she thought.

As the final breeze from the attacks disappeared, a kunai whizzed at Temari from above, drawing her attention to Raigar's left hand, which was floating above her head, coming in for a punch. Her eyes widened as she swung her fan at the floating appendage, blowing a cyclone at it, countering the kunai and enveloping the hand. Raigar recalled his left hand a few feet, out of the wind, where it hovered, waiting.

Raigar held up his right hand, massaging the wrist for a little bit, and then the hand detached as well, floating like the left had. Temari gasped, a reaction that was emulated by many on the balcony.

"So that's what Gaara meant… Watch out for the hands indeed…" Temari thought.

Rasha smiled.

"Well, that Sand girl is quite startled… and disturbed… by Raigar's ability. Then again, who wouldn't be?"

Other than Team 6, nearly everyone had had a reaction at Raigar's floating hands- from yelps of disgust (Ino and Sakura mainly) to chuckles of surprise and appreciation from some as they saw the uses of the ability (like Neji). The few who didn't respond visibly were limited to Shino, Gaara, the Rock-nin leader, and Karken.

"Now let's go!" Raigar exclaimed, his hands rushing forward towards Temari, forming hand-seals separately, yet, as Kakashi knew, with the same chakra circulation as if they were forming the seals together. Temari swung her fan at the two to stop them. Raigar's right hand performed another Wind Burst, but at close range this time. The resulting gust from the two attacks colliding so closely was much grater, sending up dust obscuring Temari from view as the wind blasted the spectators.

When the scene was finally visible again, it revealed Temari on the ground, rubbing her jaw, Raigar's left hand just coming out of an uppercut. Temari was up in an instant as Raigar's fists closed in, moving away and swinging her fan again to another Wind Burst; but this time, Raigar had another strategy in mind.

"Lightning Style: Lightning Burst!" his left hand started to spurt lightning from his palm as, once again, his right hand used Wind Burst to dissipate Temari's cyclone. This time, however, the electricity carried through the air after the two wind attacks cancelled each other out, lancing towards Temari. If not for her quick reflexes, she would have been zapped. The lightning hit the ground at her feet as she blackflipped, her fan unfurling again as she shot an attack at Raigar himself. His hands were in no position to counter that attack, but it was sent from too far away and not aimed precisely enough, for Raigar was able to dodge it without much effort.

"GO RAIGAR! YOU SHOW HER!" Tamaru exclaimed, causing many to glance at him in annoyance.

"Easy for him to say…" Raigar thought, "While it looks like I'm doing good, my attacks take much more chakra than hers because she only shapes the air with her chakra. The original wind itself originates from her physical effort of swinging the fan, where I have no such medium. I'm doing everything directly with my chakra. Extended use of my Burst attacks is draining it quick. I have to try something else."

Raigar's left hand circled around to behind Temari, who watched both hands in measured caution, ready to react at the slightest movement. She tensed as the hands began forming half-hand seals again.

"Earth Style: Stone Arrows!" Raigar said, the tips of his right hand fingers solidifying into jagged stone projectiles. They shot forward in volleys at Temari, who raised her fan once more, blowing them away. But as she deflected them, she didn't see or hear Raigar saying "Fire Style: Fire Sword!" and a red-hot jet of flame sprout from his left hand, forming into a blade as his hand rushed forward to slash Temari's back.

"Temari! Behind you!" Kankuro shouted.

She spun and saw the sword just in time as it slashed down on her. Raigar wasn't sure what happened, but it looked like her fan covered her for a second and then she vanished, fan and all.

"What the hell was that for?" Tamaru yelled at Kankuro, "That's clearly helping her!"

Kankuro shrugged.

"I did it in the tournament when she was facing that lazy guy down there." Kankuro gestured at Shikamaru, "When he made that parachute with his jacket, to extend his shadow?

Genma remembered him shouting about Shikamaru's parachute cloak in the tournament. He supposed he should have stopped him last time, but with the battle going on and all… he had forgotten. He let it slide the first time, and this time he would too, but it really wasn't supposed to be done.

"It's all right." said Genma, "Just don't do it anymore in the future."

Tamaru glared daggers at Kankuro, certain that Raigar would have had Temari if not for her brother's interjection.

"It's his fault if Raigar loses this…" Tamaru hissed.

Meanwhile, a confused Raigar was looking around for Temari, who was nowhere to be found.

"Did she run?" he asked aloud, recalling his hands to his arms.

"Wind Style: Great Cutting Whirlwind!" came a voice from behind him as he spun to see Temari gliding on her fan, landing and swinging it at him, shooting a great burst of wind at him, unlike her focused cyclones from before.

"This is way more powerful!" he thought in alarm as he brought up his hands, forming seals, "Wind Burst!"

He tried as best he could to counter the attack, but did little more than softening the blow. His burst attacks were made for short, uncontrolled elemental bursts- not extended periods of blocking and wrestling against the jutsu of another ninja. His chakra couldn't sustain the jutsu for very long in practice, much less in battle. His defenses crumbled and a blast of wind knocked him backwards and off his feet.

Temari approached, frowning.

"You're tiring out." she said.

"I'm not out of tricks yet." Raigar grunted, standing.

The two faced off for what felt like minutes as they waited for the other to move, both breathing heavily from exertion. _This is it… _Raigar thought, _At this point, it's all or nothing. One last shot. Good thing I have something in mind._

Raigar grinned at the thought as he launched into a string of hand seals at least 12 or 13 long, ending with an ox seal as his hands launched off again, in front of him, palms facing each other, the two floating about five feet apart. Temari grabbed her fan warily, waiting for whatever he was doing, reading to act in an instant.

"Wind Style: Wind Burst! Fire Style: Fire Burst!" Raigar said, as wind emitted from his left hand and fire from his right, blasting into the middle. Wind and fire filled the five foot gap in between the two hands, contained by Raigar's chakra as it swirled around in the center. As it whirled round and round, more wind and fire being added to the vortex by the second, it began to climb upwards where it spread out as Raigar's chakra lost its influence, and down where it drilled into the floor. All in all, the attack looked like a large tornado of wind and flame, spiraling out at the top as it gave the appearance of a gigantic firey funnel. Raigar faced his hands outwards towards Temari as he "pushed" the spiraling mass of energy towards her, leaving a path drilled into the floor as it passed.

"Hybrid Style: Hellfire Twister!"

Temari's eyes widened as the attack approached. The spectators, for the most part, were holding in their breath. The temperature in the room increased considerably forcing Genma to move back several paces and Tsunade to wipe her forehead with a handkerchief.

"This is his ultimate attack that he never revealed…" Tamaru breathed in amazement, "He was probably planning on using it on me."

"Don't flatter yourself." Rasha chided, "He wouldn't have to use that to beat you."

Down in the arena, Temari smirked at the oncoming attack and bit her thumb. Kankuro gasped, and then smiled as he realized what she was doing. She spread her blood on her fan, and then blew a strong gust with both of her hands. The concentrated blast shot towards the cyclone, and one could swear that they saw the shape of a scythe-bearing weasel inside the tornado as the two attacks collided.

"Summoning Technique: Quick Beheading Dance!" Temari declared as she pushed her attack against Raigar's.

A bead of sweat dropped down both of their faces as they fought to a seeming stalemate for the first thirty seconds. Then for a minute. Then for what seemed like forever, a never ending match of attacks where neither one would yield to the other.

Then something changed. Slowly, ever so slowly, Temari's attack pushed back Raigar's, inch by inch, until the entire Hellfire Twister dissipated, leaving a furious gust of wind to pummel Raigar, sending him staggering backwards. Temari's figure launched out of the dust screen as she swung her fan with two hands, catching Raigar in the side, sending him flying to the ground, where he rolled several times and was still. He began to inch upwards, but Temari was in front of him in an instant, kneeing him in the stomach so he fell over backwards, then straddling his midsection, holding her fan above his head as if to smash it.

"Winner: Temari of the Desert!" Genma declared hastily, as if fearing that she really would smash his head if he tried to get up again.

After a few more moments, she got up off of him and unfurled her fan, vanishing in the same technique that she had used before to get behind Raigar, appearing besides Kankuro and Gaara.

"A little too close." Kankuro commented.

"Shut up." she snapped, and he promptly obeyed.

Raigar stood warily, swaying a little bit, then walking up the stairs to rejoin his teammates. Kakashi said nothing, simply patting him on the shoulder and keeping a straight face. Raigar seemed detached as he stared down at the arena.

"Are you ok?" Rasha asked as he faced him, "You seem a little red."

"N-no… it's nothing…" he said, which seemed to only make his flush more apparent as he tried to hide it.

More silence. Finally Tamaru couldn't take it anymore.

"Grrr… RAIGAR!"

"What, moron?"

"I TOLD YOU NOT TO LOSE TO ANYONE BUT ME!" Tamaru yelled in his face.

"Well sorry we can't all be as good as you, huh moron?" Raigar asked.

"Well that may be true but you could have at least tried!"

Rasha shook her head and giggled a little. Raigar crossed his arms.

"It's called sarcasm, moron." Raigar said, "I don't think you're good at all, at least not compared to those in here. I'd be surprised if you were stronger than anyone, and in any case, I doubt you'll make it past the preliminary round."

"Oh yeah? OH YEAH? We'll see about that, idiot!" Tamaru shot back at his teammate.

At a nod from Tsunade, Shizune started up the battle selector again.

**Hideyoshi Hiroto**

**vs.**

**Lenea Halkia**

"…who are they?" Tamaru asked.

Kakashi pointed to the right from behind his book. One of the twin girls in the Cloud Team was moving forward, and the formidable leading Rock-nin too. Hinata and Kiba winced as they remembered the creepy Rock-nin, this Hiroto guy, as they tried to ambush Team 8 from underneath them. This was the ninja who ate a whole slab of concrete and called it tasty. This was the ninja who threatened to eat them the next time he saw them.

"Hmm… This is the ninja who Tsunade was saying was rumored to be a Jinchuuriki…" Kakashi noted.

The battle didn't take long. The girl's jutsu involved manipulating light and some cheap Genjutsus and flashes of light, which didn't seem to affect Hiroto at all. Finally he seemed to get fed up, declaring he was out of patience, then seemingly sinking into the ground as he phased into it. Seconds later the concrete underneath Lenea seemingly caved in on itself, making a huge crater some twenty-five feet across. He grabbed Lenea as she fell, holding her at the throat with massive hands, while he chewed something that filled up his mouth, that was crunching and grinding like stones. After he gave a huge gulp and Genma had declared him the winner, he stopped choking Lenea and threw her against the far wall, declaring once again that the concrete he had just ate was "tasty".

"That power…" Gaara murmured.

Temari and Kankuro turned to him, concerned.

"He's… like me…"

If before they were concerned, now they were alarmed.

"What? That Rock-nin?" Kankuro started.

"Like Gaara" Temari finished.

"This… could be a problem."

"Or a threat."

Gaara stayed silent, unblinking.

"Next." Tsunade whispered, disturbed at what she had seen. Shizune nodded vigorously, starting up the names, finally stopping on:

**Tenten**

**Vs.**

**Krazy Kazmo**

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_Next: When our teams first met, I did not think that they were serious. After the last fight with the girl, my thoughts about this team's lack of skill seemed confirmed. However… I may have to take back my words. But, Tenten is strong! I know she is! Go Tenten! Show them the power of youth!_

"_Shut up, Lee. Don't use the chapter previews to chatter on about your youth stuff."_

"All right, Neji…"

_READ AND REVIEW PLEASE!_


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